
GlassJAfM? 
Book W°l£ 






A HISTORY 

OF 

DOMESTIC MANNERS 

AND 

SENTIMENTS 

IN ENGLAND 
During tfje iftUfcfcle gges. 



By THOMAS WRIGHT, Es<^., M.A., F.S.A., 

Hon. M.R,S.L.,&c; 

Correfponding Member of the Imperial Injlitute of France 
(slcade'mie des Injcriptions et Bella Lettres). 



SSUustrattortS from tijc BhitmnationS tn (fontrmjuirarii iHamtfrript* 
anO a\\)tx ^mirtrjS, 

DRAWN & ENGRAVED by F. W. FAIRHOLT, Esq., F.S.A. 



LONDON: 

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY 
1862. 



\ 



LONDON : 

PRINTED BY JAMES S. VIRTUE, 

CITY ROAD. 



' 



TO 

THE LADY LONDESBOROUGH, 

THIS 

AS 

A TESTIMONY OF 
VERY SINCERE RESPECT, 



THE AUTHOR 



To the LADY LONDESBOROUGH. 

Dear Lady Loi 'esborough, 

The object of the following pages is to fupply what appeared to 
be a want in our popular literature. We have hiftories of England, and 
hiftories of the Middle Ages, but none of them give us a fufficient picture 
of the domeftic manners and fentiments of our forefathers at different 
periods, a knowledge of which, I need hardly infill, is neceffary to enable 
us to appreciate rightly the motives with which people afted, and the 
fpirit which guided them. The fubjecl:, too, muft have an interelt for 
.any claffes of readers, who will be glad to learn fomething of the 
manners of former days, if it were only to fee the contrail with thofe 
of our own time, and to difcover in them the origin of many of the 
characteriftics of modern fociety. Copious and valuable books have been 
published in our language on the hiftory of coftume, on that of domeftic 
architecture, on military antiquities, on the hiftory of religious rites and 
ceremonies, and on other kindred fubjecls, which enable the artift to 
clothe his perfonages correcllyj but thefe would form, after all, but the 
disjointed lkeleton of a piclure, without that further, and perhaps more 
important, fort of information which is furniftied in the following pages, 
and which will enable him to give life to his compolition. I have not 
attempted to compofe a very learned or very elaborate book. The fubjecl: 
is an immenfely wide one as regards the materials, during a large portion 
of the period which I include ; and to treat it completely would require 
the clofe ftudy of the whole mafs of the mediaeval literature of Weftern 
Europe, edited or inedited, and of the whole mafs of the monuments of 
mediaeval art. But my aim has been to bring together a fufficienl 

number 



Dedicatiojj. 



number of plain facts, in a popular form, to enable the general reader to 
form a correct view of Engliih manners and fentiments in the middle 
ages, and I can venture to claim for my book at leaft the merit of being 
the remit of original refearch. It is not a compilation from writers who 
have written on the Subject before. 

There are at leaft two ways of arranging a work like this. I might 
have taken each particular divifton of the fubje6t, one after the other, and 
traced it feparately through the period of hiftory which this volume 
embraces ; or the whole Subject might be divided into historical periods, 
in each of which all the different phafes of focial hiftory for that period 
are included. Each of thefe plans has its advantages and defects. In 
the firft, the reader would perhaps obtain a clearer notion of the hiftory 
of any particular divifion of the Subject, as of the hiftory of the table and 
of diet, or of games and amufements, or the like, but at the fame time 
it would have required a certain effort of companion and Study to arrive 
at a clear view of the general queftion at a particular period. The fecond 
furnithes this general view, but entails a certain amount of what might 
almoft be called repetition. I have chofen the latter plan, becaufe I think 
this repetition will be found to be only apparent, and it feems to me the 
beft arrangement for a popular book. 

The divifion of periods, too, is, on the whole, natural, and not 
arbitrary. During the Anglo-Saxon period, the focial lyftem, however 
developed or modified from time to time, was Strictly that of our own 
Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and was the undoubted groundwork of our 
own. The Norman conqueft brought in foreign focial manners and 
fentiments totally different from thole of the Anglo-Saxons, which for a 
time predominated, but became gradually incorporated with the Anglo- 
Saxon manners and fpirit, until, towards the end of the twelfth century, 
they formed the Englifh of the middle ages. The Anglo-Norman 
period, therefore, may he considered as an age of tranfition — it may 
perhaps he defcribed as that of the ftruggle between the fpirit of Anglo- 
Saxon fociety and feudalifm. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
may he considered in regard to fociety as the Engliih middle ages — the 
age of feudalifm in its Engliih form — ami therefore hold properly the 

largefi 



Dedication. 



largeft fpace in this volume. The fifteenth century forms again a diftincl 
period in the hiftory of fociety — it was that of the decline and breaking 
up of feudalifm, the clofe of the middle ages. At the Reformation, we 
come to a new tranfition period — the transition from mediaeval to modern 
fociety. This, for feveral reafons, I regard rather as a eonclufion, than as 
an integral part, of the hiftory contained in the following pages, and I 
therefore give only a flight iketch of it, noticing fome of its prominent 
characteriftics. The materials, at this late period, become fo extenfive, 
and fo full of intereft, that its hiftory admits of feveral divifions, each of 
which is fufficient for an important book, and I leave them to future 
refearches. One period, that of the Englilh Commonwealth, is perhaps 
of greater intereft to us at the prefent time than any other, becaufe it 
was that which totally overthrew the traditions of the middle ages, 
and inaugurated Englifh fociety as it now exifts. I know that the 
hiflory of fociety at that period has been ftudied moft profoundly by a 
friend who is, in all refpecfs, far more capable of treating it than myfelf, 
Mr. Hep worth Dixon, and from whom I truft we may look forward to 
a work on the fubjecf, which will be a moft valuable addition to the 
hiftorical literature of our time. Knowing that he has been working on 
this interefting fubjecf, I have treated this period very flightly. I ihould 
be forry to let my weeds grow upon his flowers. 

A portion of the matter contained in this volume has already appeared 
in a feries of papers in the Art-Journal, but this portion has not only 
been carefully reviled and partly re-written, but fo much addition has 
been made, that I believe that more than half the prefent volume is 
entirely new, and the whole may fairly be confidered as a new book. I 
ought to add that one chapter, that on mediaeval cookery (chapter xvi.) 
and the brief notices of the hiftory of the horfe in the middle ages, firft 
appeared in papers contributed by the author to the London Review. It 
muft be ftated, too, that the illuftrations to my chapter on mediaeval 
minftrelfies were originally engraved for a feries of papers on the min- 
ftrels, by the Rev. E. L. Cutts, published in the Art-Journal, and that 
I have to thank that gentleman for the ready willingnels with which he 
has allowed me to ufe them. 

b In 



Dedication. 



In concluiion, dear Lady Londeiborough, I need hardly fay that the 
ftudy of the hiftories of the people (inftead of that of their rulers) has 
always been a favourite ftudy with me ; and that in thefe refearches on 
mediaeval focial manners and hiftory, I have always received the warm 
fympathy and encouragement of the late Lcrd Londeiborough and of 
your Ladylhip. In his Lordlhip I have loft a refpecled and valued friend, 
to whofe learned appreciation of the fubject of mediaeval manners and 
mediaeval art I could always have recourfe with truft and fatisfaftion, with 
whom I have often converfed on the fubjecls treated of in the prefent 
volume, and whole extenfive and invaluable collection of objects of art of 
the mediaeval period, and of that of the renaiftance, furniihed a never- 
ending fource of information and pleafure. It is therefore with feelings 
of great perfonal gratification that I profit by your kind permillion to 
dedicate this volume to your Ladyihip. 

I have the honour to be, dear Lady Londeiborough, 

Your Ladylhip's very obedient fervant, 

THOMAS ^TxIGHT. 



14, Sydney Street, Brompton, London, 

November 10, 1861. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory — the Anglo-Saxons before their conversion — general 

ARRANGEMENT OE A SaXON HOUSE 



CHAPTER II. 

In-door life among the Anglo-Saxons — the hall and its hospitality 
— the Saxon meal — provisions and cookery — after-dinner occu- 
pations — DRUNKEN BRAWLS 



18 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE — BEDS AND BED-ROOMS — INFANCY AND 
CHILDHOOD AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS— CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF 

the Anglo-Saxon ladies — their cruelty to their servants — 
their amusements — the garden ; love of the anglo-saxons for 
flowers — Anglo-Saxon punishments — almsgiving .... 

CHAPTER IV. 

Out-of-door amusements of the Anglo-Saxons — hunting and hawk- 
ing — horses and carriages — travelling — money-dealings 



40 



G3 



8iTflIn--$arman !|pcrirrtf. 
CHAPTER V. 

Toe early Norman period — luxuriousness of the Normans — advance 
in domestic architecture — the kitchen am; iii f. hall — provisions 
and cookery — bees — the dairy — meal-timfs and divisions of the 
day — furniture — the faldestoi- — chaiks and other seats . . so 



Contents. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGR 

The Noeman hall — social sentiments under the Anglo-Noemans — 
domestic amusements— candles and lanteens — fuenitube — beds — 
out-of-door recreations — hunting — aechebt — convivial inter- 
course and hospitality — travelling — punishments— the stocks — 
a Norman school — education 93 



CHAPTER VII. 
Early English houses — their general eorm and distribution . .120 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The old English hall— the kitchen, and its circumstances — the 
dinner-table — minstrelsy 141 

CHAPTER IX. 

The minstrel — his position under the Anglo-Saxons — the Noeman 
trouylre, menestbel, and jougleur — their condition — i! i i 1. bet f 
— different musical insteuments in use among the minstrels — 
the Beverley minstrels 175 

CHAPTER X. 
Amusements apteb DiNprasB— gambling — the game or chess — its his- 

TOEl DII E -1 ABLES DB w &HTS 19 i 

CHAPTER XL 

DOMESTK AMUSEMENTS Mill; DINNEB -THE (II AMBER AND ITS FURNITIRF 
— PET ANIMALS — OCCUPATIONS AND MANNEBS OP Till. LADIES- SUPPEB 

■ i.i.i S, LAMPS, AND LAN! I RNS 326 

CHAPTER XII. 

The BED ami [TS PUBNITUBJ iiii COILETTE; BATHING— CHESTS USD 
COFPEBS IN THE CHAMBEB THE HUTCB OSES OP EINGS COMPOSITION 
OP Tin. I \miia PEEEDOW "i MANNEES SOCIA1 SENTIMENTS, AND 
DOMESTIC BJBLATION8 256 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE 

Occupations out of doors — the pleasure-garden — the love of flowers, 
and the fashion of making garlands — formalities of the pro- 
menade — gardening in the middle ages 283 



..CHAPTER XIV. 

Amusements — performing bears — hawking and hunting — riding — 
carriages —travelling inns and taverns — hospitality . . . 304 

CHAPTER XV. 

Education — literary men and scribes — punishments ; the stocks ; 

the gallows 338 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Old English cookery — history of " gourmandise " — English cookery 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — bills of fare — 
great feasts 347 



CIjc dTtftecntlj Centurg. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Slow progress of society in the fifteenth century — enlargement 
of the houses— the hall and its furniture — arrangement of the 
table for meals — absence of cleanliness — manners at table — 
the parlour 359 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

In-door life and conversation — pet animals — the dance — rere- 

SUPPERS — ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE "NaNCy" TAPESTRY . . . 379 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The chamber and its furniture and uses — beds— hutches and cof- 



fers TIIK TOILETTE ; MMHfOItS 



399 



Co?itents. 



CHAPTER XX. 

PAGE 

State of society — the female character — greediness en eating — 
character of the medi.eval servants — daily occupations in the 
household: spinning and weaving ; painting — the garden and 
its uses — games out of doors ; hawking, etc. — travelling, and 
more frequent use of carriages — taverns ; frequented by women 
— education and literary occupations ; spectacles .... 415 



(£ncrIano after tlje information. 

CHAPTER XXL 

Changes in English domestic manners during the period between 
the reformation and the commonwealth — the country gentle- 
man's house — its hall — the fireplace and fire — utensils — 
cookery — usual hours for meals — breakfast — dinner, and its 
forms and customs — the banquet — custom of drinking healths . ill 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Household furniture— the parlour — the chamber 171 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Occupations of the ladies — games and enjoyments— boughness of 
English sports at this period — the hot-houses, or baths — the 
ordinaries — domestic pets — treatment of children — methods of 
locomotion — conclusion 483 



HISTORT 



DOMESTIC MANNERS AND SENTIMENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. THE ANGLO-SAXONS ] 

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OI 



EFORE THEIR CONVERSION. 

A SAXON HOUSE. 



MUCH has been written at different times on the coftume and lbme 
other circumftances connected with the condition of our forefathers 
in paft times, but no one has undertaken with much fuccefs to treat 
generally of the domeftic manners of the middle ages. The hiftory 
of domeftic manners, indeed, is a fubjecf, the materials of which are 
exceedingly varied, widely fcattered, and not eafily brought together ; 
they, of courfe, vary in character with the periods to which they relate, 
and at certain periods are much rarer than at others. But the intereft of 
the fubject muft be felt by every one who appreciates art ; tor what 
avails our knowledge of coftume unlefs we know the manners, the mode 
of living, the houfes, the furniture, the utenlils, of thofe whom we have 
learnt how to clothe ? and, without this latter knowledge, hiftory itfelf 
can be but imperfectly understood. 

In England, as in molt other countries of weftern Europe, at the 
period of the middle ages when we firft become intimately acquainted 
with them, the manners and cuftoms of their inhabitants were a mixture 
of thofe of the barbarian fettlers themfelves, and of thole which they 
found among the conquered Romans ; the latter prevailing to a greater 
or lefs extent, according to the peculiar circumftances of the country. 

is This 



Hijiory of Domeftic Marnier s 



This was certainly the cafe in England among our Saxon forefathers ; 
and it becomes a matter of interelr. to afcertain what were really the 
types which belonged to the Saxon race, and to diftinguifh them from 
thofe which they derived from the Roman inhabitants of our illand. 

We have only one record of the manners of the Saxons before they 
fettled in Britain, and that is neither perfect, nor altogether unaltered — 
it is the romance of Beowulf, a poem in pure Anglo-Saxon, which con- 
tains internal marks of having been compofed before the people who 
fpoke that language had quitted their fettlements on the Continent. 
Yet we can hardly perufe it without fufpecting that fome of its por- 
traitures are defcriptive rather of what was feen in England than of what 
exifted in the north of Germany. Thus we might almofr. imagine that 
the " ftreet variegated with ftones" (Jircet woes ftan-fah), along which 
the hero Beowulf and his followers proceeded from the more to the royal 
refidence of Hrothgar, was a pidrare of a Roman road as found in 
Britain. 

It came into the mind of Hrothgar, we are told, that he would caufe 
to be built a houfe, "a great mead-hall," which was to be his chief 
palace, or metropolis. The hall-gate, we are informed, rofe aloft, "high 
and curved with pinnacles" (hedh and horn-gedp). It is elfewhere 
defcribed as a "lofty houfe 5" the hall was high j it was "fait within and 
without, with iron bonds, forged cunningly;" it appears that there were 
fteps to it, and the roof is defcribed as being variegated with gold ; the 
walls were covered with tapeftry (web after wagum), which alio was 
"variegated with gold," and prefented to the view " many a wondrous 
light to every one that looketh upon Inch." The walls appear to have 
been of wood ; we are n peatedly told that the root" was carved and lofty : 
the floor is defcribed as being variegated (probably a teflelated pave- 
ment) ; and the feats wire benches arranged round it, with the exception 
of Hrothgar's chair or throne. In the vicinity of the hall ftood the 
chambers or bowers, in whirl, there were beds (bed cefter Utrum). 

Thefe few epithets and allutions, fcattered through the poem, give us 
a tolerable notion of what tin- houfe of a Saxon chieftain mult have been 
in the country from whence our ancestors came, as well as afterwards in 

that 



a?id Sentiments. 



that where they finally fettled. The romantic ftory is taken up more 
with imaginary combats with monfters, than with domeftic fcenes, but it 
contains a few incidents of private life. The hall of king Hrothgar was 
vifited by a monfter named Grendel, who came at night to prey upon its 
inhabitants} and it was Beowulf's million to free them from this noc- 
turnal fcourge. By direction of the primeval coaft-guards, he and his 
men proceeded by the " ftreet" already mentioned to the hall of Hroth- 
gar, at the entrance to which they laid afide their armour and left their 
weapons. Beowulf found the chief and his followers drinking their ale 
and mead, and made known the object of his journey. "Then," fays 
the poem, "there was for the fons of the Geats (Beowulf and his 
followers), altogether, a bench cleared in the beer-hall ; there the bold 
of fpirit, free from quarrel, went to fit ; the thane obferved his office, he 
that in his hand bare the twilled ale-cup ; he poured the bright fweet 
liquor ; meanwhile the poet fang ferene in Heorot (the name of Hroth- 
gar' s palace), there was joy of heroes." Thus the company palled their 
time, lillening to the bard, boalling of their exploits, and telling their 
ftories, until Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, entered and "greeted the 
men in the hall." She now ferved the liquor, offering the cup firfl to 
her hufband, and then to the reft of the guefts, after which fhe feated 
herfelf by Hrothgar, and the feftivities continued till it was time to retire 
to bed. Beowulf and his followers were left to fleep in the hall — " the 
wine-hall, the treafure-houfe of men, variegated with veifels" (feet turn 
fdhne). Grendel came in the night, and after a dreadful combat received 
his death-wound from Beowulf. The noife in the hall was great ; " a 
fearful terror fell on the North Danes, on each of thofe who from the 
walls heard the outcry." Thefe were the watchmen ftationed on the 
wall forming the chieftain's palace, that enclofed the whole mafs of 
buildings (of weallc). 

As far as we can judge by the defcription given in the poem, Hrothgar 
and his houfehold in their bowers or bed-chambers had heard little of the 
tumult, but they went early in the morning to the hall to rejoice in 
Beowulf's viftory. There was great fcafting again in the hall that day, 
and Beowulf and his followers were rewarded with rich gifts. Alter 

dinner 



Hiftory of ' Domejiic Manners 



dinner the minflrel again took up the harp, and fang fome of the 
favourite hiftories of their tribe. "The lay was fung, the fong of the 
gleeman, the joke rofe again, the noife from the benches grew loud, cup- 
bearers gave the wine from wondrous veffels." Then the queen, "under 
a golden crown," again ferved the cup to Hrothgar and Beowulf. She 
afterwards went as before to her feat, and " there "was the coftliefl of 
feafts, the men drank wine," until bed-time arrived a fecond time. 
While their leader appears to have been accommodated with a chamber, 
Beowulf's men again occupied the hall. " They bared the bench- 
planks j it was fpread all over with beds and bolfters ; at their heads they 
fet their war-rims, the bright fhield-wood ; there, on the bench, might 
eafily be feen, above the warrior, his helmet lofty in war, the ringed 
mail-ihirt, and the folid fhield; it was their cuftom ever to be ready for 
war, both in houfe and in field." 

Grendel had a mother (it was the primitive form of the legend of the 
devil and his dam), and this fecond night fhe came unexpectedly to 
avenge her fon, and flew one of Hrothgar's favourite counfellors and 
nobles, who muft therefore have alfo flept in the hall. Beowulf and his 
warriors next day went in fearch of this new marauder, and fucceeded in 
deftroying her, after which exploit they returned to their own home 
laden with rich prefents. 

Thefe iketches of early manners, flight as they may be, are invaluable 
to us, in the abfence of all other documentary record during feveral ages, 
until after the Anglo-Saxons had been converted to Chriftianity. During 
this long period we have, however, one fource of invaluable information, 
though of a reftri&ed kind — the barrows or graves of our primeval fore- 
fathers, which contain almofl; every defcription of article that they ufed 
when alive. In thai folitary document, the poem of Beowulf, we are 
told of the arms which the Saxons ufed, of the drefles in which they 
were clad; ot" the rings, and bracelets, and ornaments, of which they 
wen- proud ', of the " folid cup, the valuable drinking-veflel," from which 
they quaffed the mc.nl, or the vafes from which they poured it: but we 
can obtain no notions of the form or character ot" thefe articles. From 
the graves, on the contrary, \\c obtain a perfect knowledge of the term 

and 



and Sentiments. 



and deiign of all thefe various articles, without deriving any knowledge 
as to the manner in which they were ufed. The fubje£t now becomes a 
more extenfive one ; and in the Anglo-Saxon barrows in England, we 
find a mixture, in thefe articles, of Anglo-Saxon and Roman, which 
furnithes a remarkable illuftration of the mixture of the races. "We are 
all perfectly well acquainted with Roman types ; and in the few examples 
which can be here given of articles found in early Anglo-Saxon barrows, 
I lhall only introduce fuch as will enable us to judge what claffes of the 
fubfequent mediaeval types were really derived from pure Saxon or 
Teutonic originals. 

It is curious enough that the poet who compofed the romance of 
Beowulf enumerates among the treafures in the ancient barrow, guarded 




Anglo-Saxon Drinking GlaJJ'c. 



by the dragon who was finally ilain by his hero, " the dear, or precious 
drinking-cup" {dryncftct dedre). Drinking-cups are frequently found in 
the Saxon barrows or graves in England. A group, representing the 
more ufual forms, is given in our cut, No. i, found chiefly in barrows in 
Kent, and preferved in the collections of lord Londefborough and 
Mr. Rolfe, the latter of which is now in the poffeffion of Mr. Mayer, of 
Liverpool. The example to the left no doubt reprefents the "twifted" 
pattern, fo often mentioned in Beowulf, and evidently the favourite 

ornament 



Hijiory of Dome (lie Manners 



ornament among the early Saxons. All thefe cups are of glafs ; they 
are ib formed that it is evident they could not Hand upright, lb that it 
was neceffary to empty them at a draught. This charaiSteriftic of the 
old drinking-cups is faid to have given rife to the modern name of 
tumblers. 

That thefe glafs drinking-cups — or, if we like to ufe the term, thefe 
glaffes — were implements peculiar to the Germanic race to which the 
Saxons belonged, and not derived from the Romans, we have corrobo- 
rative evidence in difcoveries made on the Continent. I will only take 

examples from fome graves of the 
fame early period, difcovered at Sel- 
zen, in Rhenifh Heffe, an interefting 
account of which was publifhed at 
Maintz, in 1848, by the brothers 
W. and L. Lindenfchmit. In thefe 
graves feveral drinking-cups were 
found, alio of glafs, and refembling 
in character the two middle figures 
in oar cut, No. 1. Three fpecimens 
are given in the cut Xo. 2. In our 
cut, No. 5, (fee page 8), is one of 
the cup-fhaped glaffes, alfo found in thefe Heffian graves, which clofely 
refembles that given in die cut No. 1. None of the cups of the cham- 
pagne-glafs form, like thofe found in England, occur in thefe foreign 
barrows. 

We fhall find alfo that the pottery of the later Anglo-Saxon period 
prefented a mixture of forms, partly derived from thofe which had be- 
longed to the Saxon race in their primitive condition, and partly copied or 
imitated from thofe of' the Romans. In fact, in our Anglo-Saxon graves 
we find much purely Roman pottery intermingled with earthen veflels 
of Saxon manufacture; and this is alfo the call' in Germany. As Roman 
forms are known to every one, we need only give the pure Saxon types. 
Our (in. No. 3, represents five examples, ami will give a fufficienl notion 
of their general character. The two to the left were taken, with a large 

quantity 




No. 2. Ge 



Drinking GlaJJe. 



and Sentiments. 



quantity more, of fimilar character, from a Saxon cemetery at Kingfton, 
near Derby; the veffel in the middle, and the upper one to the right, 




No. 3. Anglo-Saxon Pottery. 

are from Kent ; and the lower one to the right is alio from the cemetery 
at Kingfton. Several of thefe were ufually confidered as types of ancient 




No. 4. (7, 



Saxon Pottery. 



Britilh pottery, until their real character was recently demonftrated, and 
it is corroborated by the difcovery of fimilar pottery in what I will term 

the 



Hifiory of Dome/lie Manners 




No. 5. Germane- Saxon Pottery and Glajs. 



the Germano-Saxon graves. Four examples from the cemetery at Selzen, 
are given in the cut No. 4. We have here not only the rude-formed 
vefTels with lumps on the fide, but alio the characteristic ornament of 

croffes in circles. The next cut, No. 
5, reprefents two earthen veffels of 
another defcription, found in the 
graves at Selzen. The one to the 
right is evidently the prototype of 
our modern pitcher. I am informed 
there is, in the Mufeum at Dover, a 
fpecimen of pottery of this ihape, 
taken from an Anglo-Saxon barrow 
in that neighbourhood ; and Mr. 
Roach Smith took fragments of 
another from an Anglo-Saxon tu- 
mulus near the fame place. The other variation of the pitcher here 
given is remarkable, not on account of fimilar fpecimens having been 
found, as far as I know, in graves in England, but becaufe veffels of a 
limilar form are found rather commonly in the Anglo-Saxon illuminated 
manufcripts. One of thefe is given in the group No. 6, which reprefents 

three types of the later Anglo-Saxon 
pottery, felefted from a large num- 
ber copied by Strut t from Anglo- 
Saxon manufcripts. The figure to 
the left, in this group, is a later 
Saxon form of the pitcher; perhaps 
the lingular form of the handle may 
have originated in an error of the 
draughtsman. 

Anion';- the numerous articles of all kinds found in the early Anglo- 
Saxon graves, are bowls of metal (generally bronze or copper), often very 
thickly gilt, and of elegant forms; they are, perhaps, borrowed from the 
Romans. Three examples are given in the cul No. -. all found in (Cent. 
They were probably intended for the fervice of the table. Another claft 

of 




No. 6. jlnglo-Stixon Pottery. 



and Sentiments. 



m^s^'^'&l 




'.-Sjx.n B oiv Is. 



of utenfils found rather commonly in the Anglo-Saxon barrows are 
buckets. The firft of thole reprefented in onr cut, No. 8, was found in 
a Saxon barrow near Marlborough, 
in Wiltshire ; the other was found 
on the Chatham lines. As far as 
my own experience goes, I believe 
thefe buckets are ufually found with 
male ikeletons, and from this circum- 
ftance, and the fa6t of their being 
ufually ornamented, I am inclined to 
think they ferved fome purpofes con- 
ne6ted with the festivities of the hall ; 
probably they were ufed to carry 
the ale or mead. The Anglo-Saxon 

tranilation of the Book of Judges (ch. vii. ver. 20), rendered hydrias 
confregijjent by to-lrcecon tha hucas, " they broke the buckets." A common 
name for this implement, which was 
properly hue, was cefcen, which fig- 
nified literally a veffel made of alh, 
the favourite wood of the Anglo- 
Saxons. Our cut, No. 9, reprefents 
a bucket of wood with very deli- 
cately-formed bronze hoops and han- 
dle, found in a barrow in Bourne 
Park, near Canterbury. The wood was entirely decayed; but the 
hoops and handle are in the collection of lord Londef borough. Such 
buckets have, alfo, been found under fimilar circumftances on the 
Continent. The clofe refemblance between the weapons and other 
inftruments found in the Englifh barrows and in thofe at Selzen, may 
be illuftrated by a companion of the two axes reprefented in the cut, 
No. 10. The upper one was found at Selzen j the lower one is in 
the Mufeum of Mr. Rolfe, and was obtained from a barrow in the Ille 
of Thanet. The fame fimilarity is obferved between the knives, which 
is the more remarkable, as the later Anglo-Saxon knives were quite of a 




Anglo-Saxon Buckets. 



different 



IO 



Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 



different form. The example, cut No. u, taken from a grave at Selzen, 
is the only inftance I know of a knife of this early period of Saxon his- 
tory with the handle preferved ; it has been beautifully enamelled. This 
may be taken as the type of the primitive Anglo-Saxon knife. 

Having given thefe few examples of the general forms of the imple- 
ments in ufe among the Saxons before their converfion to Chriftianity, as 





No. 9. Anglo-Saxon Buciet. 



No. 10. Anglo-Saxon Axes. 



much to illuhrate their manners as defcribed by Beowulf, as to fhow 
what claffes of types were originally Saxon, we will proceed to treat of 
their domeftic manners as we learn them from the more numerous and 




No, 1 1 . Gcrmano-Saxon Knife. 



more definite documents of a later period. We (ball find it convenient 
to confider the fubjeel feparately as it regards in-door life and out-door 
life, and it will be proper firft that we mould form fome definite notion 
of an Anglo-Saxon houfe. 

We can already form fome notion of the primeval Saxon manfion 
from our bri< f review of the poem of Beowulf; and we (hall find thai it 

continued 



and Sentiments. 



i i 



continued nearly the fame down to a late period. The moll important 
part of the building was the hall, on which was bellowed all the orna- 
mentation of which the builders and decorators of that early period were 
capable. Halls built of Hone are alluded to in a religious poem at the 
beginning of the Exeter book ; yet, in the earlier period at leaft, there 
can be little doubt that the materials of building were chiefly wood. 
Around, or near this hall, flood, in feparate buildings, the bed-chambers, 
or bowers (lur), of which the latter name is only now preferved as 
applied to a fummer-houfe in a garden ; but the reader of old Englilh 
poetry will remember well the common phrafe of a bird in lure, a lady 
in her bower or chamber. Thele buildings, and the houfehold offices, 
were all grouped within an inclofure, or outward wall, which, I imagine, 
was generally of earth, for the Anglo-Saxon word, weall, was applied to 
an earthen rampart, as well as to mafonry. What is termed in the poem 
of Judith, wealles gedt, the gate of the wall, was the entrance through 
this inclofure or rampart. I am convinced that many of the earth-works, 
which are often looked upon as ancient camps, are nothing more than 
the remains of the inclofures of Anglo-Saxon refldences. 

In Beowulf, the fleeping-rooms of Hrothgar and his court feem to 
have been fo completely detached from the hall, that tbejr inmates did 
not hear the combat that was going on in the latter building at night. 
In fmaller houfes the fleeping-rooms were fewer, or none, until we arrive 
at the Ample room in which the inmates had board and lodging together, 
with a mere hedge for its inclofure, the prototype of our ordinary cottage 
and garden. The wall ferved for a defence againft robbers and enemies, 
while, in times of peace and tranquillity, it was a protection from in- 
difcreet intruders, for the doors of the hall and chambers feem to have 
been generally left open. Beggars aflembled round the door of the 
wall — the ojiium domus — to wait for alms. 

The vocabularies of the Anglo-Saxon period furnifh us with the 
names of moft of the parts of the ordinary dwellings. The entrance 
through the outer wall into the court, the flrength of which is alluded to 
in early writers, was properly the gate (gedt). The whole mill's inclofed 
within this wall conftituted the lurk (burgh), or tun, and the inclofed 

court 



12 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

court itfelf feems to have been defignated as the eqfer-lun, or inburh. 
The wall of the hall, or of the internal buildings in general, was called a 
wag, or zuah, a distinctive word which remained in ufe till a late period 
in the Englifh language, and feems to have been loft partly through the 
fimilarity of found.* The entrance to the hall, or to the other buildings 
in the interior, was the duru, or door, which was thus diltinguiihed from 
the gate. Another kind of door mentioned in the vocabularies was a 
hlid-gata, literally a gate with a lid or cover, which was perhaps, how- 
ever, a word merely invented to reprefent the Latin valva, which is given 
as its equivalent. The door is defcribed in Beowulf as being " fattened 
with fire-bands" (fyr-bendumjieji, 1. 1448), which mutt mean iron bars.f 
Either before the door of the hall, or between the door and the interior 
apartment, was fometimes zfelde, literally a ihed, but perhaps we might 
now call it a portico. The different parts of the architectural ttructure of 
the hall enumerated in the vocabularies are Jiapul, a pott or log fet in the 
ground ; Jiipere, a pillar ; beam, a beam 3 rcefter, a rafter ; Iceta, a lath j 
fiver, a column. The columns fupported bigels, an arch or vault, or 
fyrji, the interior of the roof, the ceiling. The hrqf, or roof, was called 
alio thecal, or thcecen, a word derived from the verb theccan, to cover ; but 
although this is the original of our modern word thatch, our readers mufl 
not fuppofe that the Anglo-Saxon thcecen meant what we call a thatched 
roof, for we have the Anglo-Saxon word thcec-tigel, a thatch-tile, as well 
as hrqf-tigel, a roof-tile. There was fometimes one ftory above the 
ground-floor, for which the vocabularies give the Latin word folarium, 
the origin of the later mediaeval word, foler ; but it is evident that this 

* The distinction between the ivag/ie and walk continued to a comparatively late 
period. Halliweli, "Dictionary of Archaic aiul Provincial Words," \. 
quotes the following lines from a manuscript or the fifteenth century — 

So hedoufcly that Jlorme ganne fallc, 
Thatfondir it brafte hot he waj 

f It appears not, however, to have been customary to lock the doors during the 
absence of the family, but merely to leave some one to take care of the house. 
This, at least, was the case in Winchester, as we leain from the mil 
St. Swithun, by the monk Lantfred. 



and Sentiments. i 3 



was not common to Anglo-Saxon houfes, and the only name for it was 
i/ji-Jlar, an upper floor. It was approached by ajlasger, fo named from 
the verb Jiigari, to afcend, and the origin of our modern word Jlair. 
There were windows to the hall, which were probably improvements 
upon the ruder primitive Saxon buildings, for the only Anglo-Saxon words 
for a window are eag-thyrl, an eye-hole, and eag-duru, an eye-door. 

We have unfortunately no fpecial defcriptions of Anglo-Saxon houfes, 
but fcattered incidents in the Anglo-Saxon hiftorians ihow us that this 
general arrangement of the houfe lafted down to the latere, period of their 
monarchy.. Thus, in the year 755, Cynewulf, king of the Weft Saxons, 
was murdered at Merton by the atheling Cyneard. The circumftances 
of the ftory are but imperfectly underftood, unlefs we bear in mind the 
above defcription of a houfe. Cynewulf had gone to Merton privately, 
to vifit a lady there, who feems to have been his miftrefs, and he only 
took a fmall party of his followers with him. Cyneard, having received 
information of this vifit, affembled a body of men, entered the inclofure 
of the houfe unperceived (as appears by the context), and furrounded the 
detached chamber (htir) in which was the king with the lady. The 
king, taken by furprife, rulhed to the door (on tha dura code), and was 
there flain fighting. The king's attendants, although certainly within 
the inclofure of the houfe, were out of hearing of this fudden fray (they 
were probably in the hall), but they were roufed by the woman's fcreams, 
rallied to the fpot, and fought till, overwhelmed by the numbers of their 
enemies, they alio were all flain. The murderers now took poifellion of 
the houfe, and ihut the entrance gate of the wall of inclofure, to protect 
themfelves againft the body of the king's followers who had been left ai 
a diftance. Thefe, next day, when they heard what had happened, 
haftened to the fpot, attacked the houfe, and continued fighting around 
the gate (ymb ihd gatu) until they made their way in, ami flew all the 
men who were there. Again, we are told, in the Ramfey Chronicle 
published by Gale, of a rich man in the Danilh period, who was oppres- 
fivc to his people, and, therefore, fufpicious of them. He accordingly 
had four watchmen every night, chofen alternately from his houfehold, 
who kept guard at the outfide ot" his hall, evidently tor the purpofe of 

imv\ enting 



14 Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 



preventing his enemies from being admitted into the inclofure by 
treachery. He lay in his chamber, or bower. One night, the watch- 
men having drunk more than ufual, were unguarded in their fpeech, and 
talked together of a plot into which they had entered againft the life of 
their lord. He, happening to be awake, heard their converfation from 
his chamber, and defeated their project. We fee here the chamber of 
the lord of the manfion lb little fubftantial in its conftruction that its 
inmates could hear what was going on out of doors. At a Hill later 
period, a Northumbrian noble, whom Hereward vifited in his youth, had 
a building for wild beafts within his houfe or inclofure. One day a bear 
broke loofe, and immediately made for the chamber or bower of the lady 
of the houfehold, in which ihe had taken fhelter with her women, and 
whither, no doubt, the lavage animal was attracted by their cries. We 
gather from the context that this afylum would not have availed them, 
had not young Hereward llain the bear before it reached them. In fact, 
the lady's chamber was ftill only a detached room, probably with a very 
weak door, which was not capable of withftanding any force. 

The Harleian Manufcript, No. 603 (in the Britifh Mufeum), contains 
feveral illuftrations of Anglo-Saxon domeftic architecture, molt of which 
are rather iketchy and indefinite; but there is one picture (fol. 57, \ .) 
which illuftrates, in a very interefting manner, the diftribution of the houfe. 
Of this, an exact copy is given in the accompanying cut, No. 12."* The 
manufcript is, perhaps, as old as the ninth century, and the picture here 
given illuftrates Pfalm cxi., in the Vulgate verlion, the defcription of 
the juft and righteous chieftain : the beggars are admitted within the 
inclofure (where the fcene is laid), to receive the alms of the lord ; and 
he and his lady are occupied in diftributing bread to them, while his 
fervants are bringing out of one of the bowers raiment to clothe the 
naked. The larger building behind, ending in a fort of round tower 



* Strutt has engraved, without indicating the manuscript from which it is taken, 
a small Saxon house, consisting of one hall or place for living in, with a chamber 
attached, exactly like the domestic chapel and its attached chamber in our cut, 
No. 12. This seems to have been the usual shape of small houses in the Anglo- 
Saxon period. 

with 



and Sentiments. 



!5 



ith a cupola, is evidently the hall — the flag's head feems to mark its 




character. The buildings to the left are chambers or bowers; to the 

rteht 



1 6 Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 

right is the domeftic chapel, and the little room attached is perhaps the 
chamber of the chaplain. 

It is evidently the intention in this picture to reprefent the walls of 
the rooms as being formed, in the lower part, of mafonry, with timber 
walls above, and all the windows are in the timber walls. If we make 
allowance for want of perfpective and proportion in the drawing, it is 
probable that only a fmall portion of the elevation was mafonry, and that 
the wooden walls (parietes) were raifed above it, as is very commonly the 
cafe in old timber-houfes ftill exifting. The greater portion of the Saxon 
houfes were certainly of timber ; in Alfric's colloquy, it is the carpenter, 
or worker in wood (fe trec-iryrhta), who builds houfes ; and the very 
word to exprefs the operation of building, timbrian, getimbrian, Signified 
literally to conftruct of timber. We obferve in the above reprefenta- 
tion of a houfe, that none of the buildings have more than a ground- 
floor, and this feems to have been a chara&eriftic of the houfes of all 
claffes. The Saxon word flor is generally ufed in the early writers to 
reprefent the Latin pavimentum. Thus the "variegated floor" (on Jag re 
flor) of the hall mentioned in Beowulf (1. 1454) was a paved floor, 
perhaps a teffellated pavement ; as the road fpoken of in an earlier part 
of the poem (flrcet ivccs ftdn-fdk, the flreet was ftone-variegated, 1. 644) 
defcribes a paved Roman road. The term upper-floor occurs once or 
twice, but only I think in translating from foreign Latin writers. The 
only inflance that occurs to my memory of an upper-floor in an Anglo- 
Saxon houfe, is the ftory of Dunftan's council at Calne in 978, when, 
according to the Saxon Chronicle, the witan, or council, fell from an 
upper-floor (of ane Hp-Jioran), while Dunftan himfelf avoided their fate 
by fupporting himfelf on a beam (uppon anwm beame). The buildings in 
the above pi6ture are all roofed with tiles of differenl forms, evidently 
copied from the older Roman roof-tiles. Perhaps the flatnefs of thefe 
roofs is onlj to be considered as a proof of the draughtsman's ignorance of 
perspective. One of Alfric's homilies applies the epithet ,//<</, to a roof— 
072 thamjlicelan hrqfe. The hall is not unfrequently defcribed as lofty. 

The collective houfe had various names in Anglo-Saxon. Ii was 
called h&s, a houfe. a general term for all refidences erreal or fmall; it 



and Sentiments. 1 7 



was called heal, or hall, becaufe that was the moll important part of the 
building — we ftill call gentlemen's feats halls ; it was called ham, as 
being the relidence or home of its poffeffor; and it was called tun, in 
regard of its inclofure. 

The Anglo-Saxons chofe for their country-houfes a pofition which 
commanded a profpe£t around, becaufe fuch fltes afforded protection at 
the fame time that they enabled the poffeffor to overlook his own landed 
poffeffions. The Ramfey Chronicle, defcribing the beautiful fituation of 
the manfion at " Schitlingdonia" (Shitlington), in Bedfordihire, tells us 
that the furrounding country lay fpread out like a panorama from the 
door of the hall — ubi ah oftio aulce totafere villa et late patens ager arabilis 
oculis Juhjacet intuentis. 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



CHAPTER II. 

IN-DOOR LIFE AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS. THE HALL AND ITS HOS- 
PITALITY. THE SAXON MEAL. PROVISIONS AND COOKERY. AFTER- 
DINNER OCCUPATIONS. DRUNKEN BRAWLS. 

THE introductory obfervations in the preceding chapter will be 
fufficient to fhow that the mode of life, the veffels and utenfils, 
and even the residences of the Anglo-Saxons, were a mixture of thofe 
they derived from their own forefathers with thofe which they borrowed 
from the Romans, whom they found eftabliihed in Britain. It is in- 
terefting to us to know that we have retained the ordinary forms of 
pitchers and banns, and, to a certain degree, of drinking verTels, which 
exifted fo many centuries ago among our anceftors before they eftabliihed 
themfelves in this ifland. The beautiful forms which had been brought 
from the claffic fouth were not able to fuperfede national habit. Our 
modern houfes derive more of their form and arrangement from thofe of 
our Saxon forefathers than from any other fource. We have feen that the 
original Saxon arrangement of a houfe was preferved by that people to the 
laft ; but it does not follow that they did not fometimes adopt the Roman 
houfes they found Handing, although they feem never to have imitated 
them. I believe Bulwer's defcription of the Saxonifed Roman houfe inha- 
bited by Hilda, to be founded in truth. Roman villas, when uncovered 
at the prefenl day, are fometimes found to have undergone alterations 
which can onlj be explained byfuppofing that they were made when later 
pofleffors adapt* d them to Saxon manners. Such alterations appear to me 
to be vifible in the villa at Hadftock, in Effex, opened by the late lord 
Braybrooke ; in one place the outer wall feems to have been broken through 
to make a new entrance, and a road of tiles, which was fuppofed to have 
been the bottom of a water cowrie, was more probably the paved path- 
way 



a?id Sentiments. 1 9 



way made by the Saxon polTellbr. Houfes in thole times were feldom 
of long duration ; we learn from the domeftic anecdotes given in faints' 
legends and other writings, that they were very frequently burnt by 
accidental fires ; thus the main part of the houfe, the timber-work, was 
defiroyed j and as ground was then not valuable, and there was no want 
of fpace, it*vas much eafier to build a new houfe in another fpot, and 
leave the old foundations till they were buried in rubbilli and earth, than 
to clear them away in order to rebuild on the fame lite. Earth loon 
accumulated under fuch circumltances ; and this accounts for our finding, 
even in towns, lb much of the remains of the houfes of an early period 
undifturbed at a conliderable depth under the prefent furface of the 
ground. 

It has already been obferved that the moft important part of the 
Saxon houfe was the hall. It was the place where the houfehold (hired) 
collected round their lord and protector, and where the vilitor or ftranger 
was fn-it received, — the fcene of hofpitality. The houfeholder there held 
open-houfe, for the hall was the public apartment, the doors of which 
were never fhut againft thofe who, whether known or unknown, appeared 
worthy of entrance. The reader of Saxon hiflory will remember the 
beautiful comparifon made by one of king Edwin's chieftains in the 
difcuflion on the reception to be given to the miflionary Paulinus. " The 
prefent life of man, O king, feems to me, in comparifon of that time 
which is unknown to us, like to the fwift flight of a fparrow through 
the hall where you fit at your meal in winter, with your chiefs and 
attendants, warmed by a fire made in the middle of the hall, whilfl: ftorms 
of rain or fnow prevail without ; the fparrow, flying in at one door and 
immediately out at another, whilfl he is vifible is fafe from the wintry 
florm, but after this fhort fpace of fair weather, he immediately vaniihes 
out of your fight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged." 
Dining in private was always confidered difgraceful, and is mentioned as 
a blot in a man's character. 

Internally, the walls of the hall were covered with hangings or 
tapeflry, which were called in Anglo-Saxon wah-huvgcl, or tcnh-rij't, 
wall-clothing. Thefe appear fometimes to have been mere plain cloths, 

but 



20 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

but at other times they were richly ornamented, and not unfrequently 
embroidered with hiftorical fubjects. So early as the feventh century, 
Aldhelm fpeaks of the hangings or curtains being dyed with purple and 
other colours, and ornamented with images, and he adds that " if rinilhed 
of one colour uniform they would not feem beautiful to the eye." 
Among the Saxon wills printed by Hickes, we find feveral bequefts of 
heall wah-riftas, or wall-tapeftries for the hall ; and it appears that, in 
ibme cafes, tapeftries of a richer and more precious character than thole 
in common ufe were referved to be hung up only on extraordinary 
feftivals. There were hooks, or pegs, on the wall, upon which various 
objects were hung for convenience. In an anecdote told in the contem- 
porary life of Dunftan, he is made to hang his harp againft the wall of 
the room. Arms and armour, more elpecially, were hung againft the 
wall of the hall. The author of the " Life of Hereward" delcribes the 
Saxon infurgents who had taken poffeflion of Ely, as fufpending their 
arms in this manner ; and in one of the riddles in the Exeter Book, a 
war-veil is introduced fpeaking of itfelf thus : — 

hivilum hongige, Sometimes I hang, 

hyrjium froetwed, ivith ornaments adorned, 

ivlitig on luage, fplendid en the ivall, 

\>ar iveras drince'X, where men drink, 

fr colic fyrd-fceorp. a goodly ivar-iiejl. — Exeter Book, p. 395. 

We have no allufion in Anglo-Saxon writers to chimneys, or fire- 
places, in our modern acceptation of the term. When necellarv, the 
fire feems to have been made on the floor, in the place moll convenient. 
We find inftances in the early faints' legends where the hall was burnt 
by incautioufly lighting the fire too near the wall. Hence it teems to 
have been uliiully placed in the middle, and there can be little doubt 
that there was an opening, or, as it was called in later times, a louver, in 
the roof above, for the efcape of the (moke. The biftorian Bede defcribes 
a Northumbrian king, in the middle of the feventh century, as having, 
on his return from hunting, entered the hall with his attendants, and all 
ftanding round the fire to warm themfelves. A fomewhat (imilar fcene, 
but in more bumble life, is reprefented in the accompanying cut, taken 

from 



and Sentiments. 



from a manufcript calendar of the beginning of the eleventh century 
(MS. Cotton. Julius, A. iv.). The material for feeding the fire is 
wood, which the man to the left is bringing from a heap, while his 



^ 




13. A Party at the Fire. 



companion is administering to the 
fire with a pair of Saxon tongs 
(Jtangan). The vocabularies give 
tange, tongs, and lylig, bellows 5 
and they fpeak of col, coal (ex- 
plained by the Latin carlo), and 
fynder, a cinder {fcorium). As all 
thefe are Saxon words, and not 
derived from the Latin, we may fuppofe that they reprefent things 
known to the Anglo-Saxon race from an early period ; and as charcoal 
does not produce fcorium, or cinder, it is perhaps not going too far to 
fuppofe that the Anglo-Saxons were acquainted with the ufe of mineral 
coal. We know nothing of any other fire utenhls, except that the 
Anglo-Saxons ufed a fyr-fcqfl, or fire-lhovel. The place in which the 
fire was made was the heorth, or hearth. 

The furniture of the hall appears to have been very fimple, for it 
confirled chiefly of benches. Thefe had carpets and cufhions ; the former 
are often mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon wills. The Anglo-Saxon poems 
fpeak of the hall as being "adorned with treafnres," from which we are 
perhaps j unified in believing that it was cuftomary to difplay there in 
fome manner or other the richer and more ornamental of the houfehold 
veffels. Perhaps one end of the hall was raifed higher than the reft for 
the lord of the houfehold, like the dais of later times, as Anglo-Saxon 
writers fpeak of the heah-fctl, or high feat. The table can hardly be 
confidered as furniture, in the ordinary fenfe of the word : it was literally, 
according to its Anglo-Saxon name lord, a board that was brought out 
for the occafion, and placed upon treffels, and taken away as foon as the 
meal was ended. Among the inedited Latin mnigmata, or riddles, of 
the Anglo-Saxon writer Tahtwin, who flourifhed at the beginning of the 
eighth century, is one on a tabic, which is curious enough to be given 
here, from the manufcript in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 12, C. xxiii.). 

The 



22 Hijiory of Domeflic Manners 

The table, fpeaking in its own perfon, fays that it is in the habit of 
feeding people with all forts of viands; that while fo doing it is a quad- 
ruped, and is adorned with handfome clothing; that afterwards it is 
robbed of all it poifeffes, and when it has been thus robbed it lofes its 
legs :— ' 

DE MENSA. 

Multiferis omnes dapibus fat ur are folefco, 
Quadrupedem hinc felix ditem mejanxerit atas, 
EJfe tamen pulchrh fathn dum -veftibus orner, 
Ccrtatim me prccdcnes fpoliare folefcunt, 
Rapth nudata exwviis mox membra rellnquur.t. 

In the illuminated manufcripts, wherever dinner fcenes are repre- 
fented, the table is always covered with what is evidently intended for a 
handfome table-cloth, the myfe-hrcegel or hord-clath. The grand pre- 
paration for dinner was laying the board; and it is from this original 
character of the table that we derive our ordinary expreffion of receiving 
any one "to board and lodging." 

The hall was peculiarly the place for eating — and for drinking. The 
Anglo-Saxons had three meals in the day, — the breaking of their faft 
(breakfaft), at the third hour of the day, which anfwered to nine o'clock 
in the morning, according to our reckoning; the ge-reordung (repair), or 
non-mete (noon-meat) or dinner, which is frated to have been held at 
the canonical hour of noon, or three o'clock in the afternoon ; and the 
cefen-gereord (evening repair), cefen-gyfl (evening food), cefen-mete (even- 
ing meat), cefen-thenung (evening refreshment), or fupper, the hour of 
which is uncertain. It is probable, from many circumltances, that the 
latter was a meal not originally in ufe among our Saxon forefatheis: 
perhaps their only meal at an earlier period was the dinner, which was 
always their principal repaftj and we may, perhaps, confider noon as 
midday, and not as meaning the canonical hour. 

As I have obferved before, the table, from the royal hall down to the 
molt humble of thofe who could afford it, was not refufed to ft 
V. hen they came to the hall-door, the guefls were required to leave their 
anus in the care of a porter or attendant, and then, whether known or 

not, 



and Sentiments. 



2 3 



not, they took their place at the tables. One of the laws of king Cnut 
directs, that if, in the meantime, any one took the weapon thus depo- 
fited, and did hurt with it, the owner fhould be compelled to clear 
himfelf of fufpicion of being cognifant of the ufe to be made of his arms 
when he laid them down. Hiftory affords us feveral remarkable inftances 
of the facility of approach even to the tables of kings during the Saxon 
period. It was this circumfiance that led to the murder of king Edmund 
in 946. On St. Auguftin's day, the king was dining at his manor of 
Pucklechurch, in Gloucefterfhire ; a bandit named Leofa, whom the king 
had banifhed for his crimes, and who had returned without leave from 
exile, had the effrontery to place himfelf at the royal table, by the fide 
of one of the principal nobles of the court ; the king alone recognifed 
him, rofe from his feat to expel him from the hall, and received his 
death-wound in the flruggle. In the eleventh century, when Hereward 
went in difguife as a fpy to the court of a Cornilh chieftain, he entered 




No. 1 4. An Anglo-Saxon Dinner-Party Pledging. 

the hall while they were feafling, took his place among the guefls, and 
was but flightly queftioned as to who he was and whence he came. 

In the early illuminated manufcripts, dinner fcenes are by no means 
uncommon. The cut, No. 14 (taken from Alfric's verfion of Genefis, 

MS. Cotton. 



2 4 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manm 



MS. Cotton. Claudius, B. iv., fol. 36, v°), reprefents Abraham's feafl on 
the birth of his child. The guefts are fitting at an ordinary long hall 
table, ladies and gentlemen being mixed together without any apparent 
fpecial arrangement. This manufcript is probably of the beginning of 
the eleventh century. The cut, No. 1^, reprefents another dinner fcene, 
from a manufcript probably of the tenth century (Tiberius, C. vi., fol. 5, 
v°), and prefents feveral peculiarities. The party here is a very fmall 




No. 15. Anglo-Saxons at Dinner. 

one, and they fit at a round table. The attendants feem to be ferving 
them, in a very remarkable manner, with roaft meats, which they bring 
to table on the fpits (fpitu) as they were roafted. Another feftive fcene 
is reprefented in the cut, No. 16, taken from a manufcript of the Pfycho- 
machia of the poet Prudentius (MS. Cotton. Cleopatra, C. viii., fol. 15, r°). 
The table is again a round one, at which Luxury and her companions are 
feated at fupper (feo Gaines at kyre <zfen-ge-reordumJitt). 

It will be obferved that in thefe pictures, the tables are tolerably well 
covered with veffels of different kinds, with the exception of plates. 
There are one or two difhes of different fizes in fig. 14. intended, no doubt, 
for holding bread and other articles; it was probably an utenfil borrowed 
from the Romans, as the Saxon name difc was evidently taken from the 

Latin 



a?id Sentiments. 



Latin difcus. It is not eafy to identify the forms of veffels given in thefe 
pi&ures with the words which are found in the Anglo-Saxon language, 
in which the general term for a velfel is feet, a vat ; crocca, a pot or 
pitcher, no doubt of earthenware, is preferved in the modern Englilh word 
crockery 3 and holla, a bowl, ore, a bafin, lledu and mele, each anfwering 
to the Latin patera, Icefel and ceac, a pitcher or urn, hneep, a cup (iden- 
tical in name with the hanap of a later period), Jlaxe, a flalk, are all pure 
Anglo-Saxon words. Many of the forms reprefented in the manufcripts 




No. 1 6. A Supper Party. 

are recognifed at once as identical with thofe which are found in the 
earlier Anglo-Saxon graves. In the vocabularies, the Latin word am- 
phora is tranflated by crocca, a crock ; and lagena by cefcen, which means 
a veffel made of afh wood, and was, in all probability, identical with the 
fmall wooden buckets fo often found in the early Saxon graves. In a 
document preferved in Heming's chartulary of Canterbury, mention is 
made of " an cefcen, which is otherwife called a back-bucket" (cefcen (lit- 
is othre namon hrygilcbuc gccleopad, Hcming, p. 393), which ftrongly con- 

E firms 



26 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

firms the opinion I have adopted as to the purpofe of the bucket found 
in the graves. 

The food of the Anglo-Saxons appears to have been in general rather 
fimple in character, although we hear now and then of great feafts, 
probably confining more in the quantity of provifions than in any great 
variety or refinement in gaftronomy. Bread formed the ftaple, which 
the Anglo-Saxons appear to have eaten in great quantities, with milk, 
and butter, and cheefe. A domeftic was termed a man's hlaf-cetan, or 
loaf-eater. There is a curious paffage in one of Alfric's homilies, that on 
the life of St. Benedict, where, fpeaking of the ufe of oil in Italy, the 
Anglo-Saxon writer obferves, " they eat oil in that country with their 
food as we do butter." Vegetables (wyrtan) formed a confiderable 
portion of the food of our forefathers at this period ; beans ileana) are 
mentioned as articles of food, but I remember no mention of the eating 
of peas (pi/an) in Anglo-Saxon writers. A variety of circumftances fhow 
that there was a great confumption of fifh, as well as of poultry. Of 
flefh meat, bacon (fpic) was the moil abundant, for the extenfive oak 
forefts nourifhed innumerable droves of fwine. Much of their other 
meat was falted, and the place in which the fait meat was kept was 
called, on account of the great preponderance of the bacon, af/ric-hus, or 
bacon-houfe ; in latter times, for the same reafon, named the larder. 
The practice of eating fo much fait meat explains why boiling feems to 
have been the prevailing mode of cooking it. In the manufcript of 
Alfric's translation of Genefis, already mentioned, we have a figure of a 
boiling veffel (No. 17), which is placed over the fire on a tripod. This vefiel 
was called a pan (panna — one Saxon writer mentions ifen panna, an iron 
pan) or a kettle (cytel). It is very curious to obferve how many of our 
trivial expreilions at the prefent day are derived from very ancient cuftoms ; 
thus, for example, we fpeak of "a kettle of fifh," though what we now 
term a kettle would hardly ferve for this branch of cookery. In another 
picture (No. 18) we have a fimilar boiling veffel, placed fimilarly on a tripod, 
while the cook is ufing a very Angular utenfil to ftir the contents. Bede 
fpeaks of a goofe being taken down from a wall to be boiled. It feems 
probable that in earlier times among the Anglo-Saxons, and perhaps at a 

later 



and Sentiments. 



27 



later period, in the cafe of large feafts, the cooking was done out of doors. 
The only words in the Anglo-Saxon language for cook and kitchen, are 
c6c and cycene, taken from the Latin coqiuis and coquina, which feems to 





No. 17. A Saxon Kettle. 



No. 18. A Saxon Cook. 



fliow that they only improved their rude manner of living in this refpect 
after they had become acquainted with the Romans. Betides boiled 
meats, they certainly had roaft, or broiled, which they called Ircede, meat 
which had been fpread or difplayed to the fire. The vocabularies explain 
the Latin coctus by "boiled or baked" (gefoden, gelaccn). They alio 
fried meat, which was then called hyrjlyng, and the veffel in which it 
was fried was called hyrfdng-panne, a frying-pan. Broth, alio (broth), 
was much in ufe. 

In the curious colloquy of Alfric (a dialogue made to teach the 
Anglo-Saxon youth the Latin names for different articles), three pro- 
feflions are mentioned as requifite to furnifh the table : firft, the falter, 
who ftored the flore-rooms (cleafan) and cellars (hedderne), and without 
whom they could not have butter (luterc) — they always ufed fait butter 
— or cheefe (cyfe) ; next, the baker, without* wh'ofe handiwork, we are 
told, every table would feem empty ; and laftly, the cook. The work of 
the latter appears not at this time to have been very elaborate. "If you 
expel me from your fociety," he fays, "you will be obliged to cat your 

vegetables 



28 



Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 



vegetables green, and your flefh-meat raw, nor can you have any fat 
broth." "We care not," is the reply, "for we can ourfelves cook our 
provifions, and fpread them on the table." Inftead of grounding his 
defence on the difficulties of his profeffion, the cook reprefents that in 
this cafe, inflead of having anybody to wait upon them, they would be 
obliged to be their own fervants. It may be obferved, as indicating the 
general prevalence of boiling food, that in the above account of the cook, 
the Latin word coquere is rendered by the Anglo-Saxon feothan, to boil.* 
Our words cook and kitchen are the Anglo-Saxon c6c and cycene, and have 
no connection with the French cuifine. 

We may form fome idea of the proportions in the confumption of 
different kinds of provifions among our Saxon forefathers, by the quan- 
tities given on certain occahons to the monasteries. Thus, according to 
the Saxon Chronicle, the occupier of an eftate belonging to the abbey of 
Medefhamftede (Peterborough) in 852, was to furnifh yearly fixty loads 




No. 19. Anglo-Saxons at Table, 



of wood for firing, twelve of coal (grccfa), fix of fagots, two tuns of pure 
ale, two beafts fit for flaughter, fix hundred loaves, and ten meafures of 
Welih ale. 

It will be obferved in the dinner fcenes given above, that the guefts 



* William of Malmesbury, de Gest. Pontif. printed in Gale, p. 249, describes 
the Saxons as cooking their meat in lebete, evidently meaning the sort of vessel 
figured in the foregoing cuts. The Latin Ubcs, a cauldron or kettle, is interpreted 
in the early glossaries by the Anglo-Saxon hwer, or her, from which we derive the 
English word ewer; hioar-boll or Awar-cyte) are interpreted in the Anglo-Saxon 
dictionaries as meaning a frying-pan, which is evidently not correct. 



a?id Sentiments. 



29 



are helping therafelves with their hands. Forks were totally unknown to 
the Anglo-Saxons for the purpofe of carrying the food to the mouth, and 
it does not appear that every one at table was furniihed with a knife. 
In the cut, No. 19 (taken from MS. Harl. No. 603, fol. 12, r .), a party 
at table are eating without forks or knives. It will be obferved here, as 
in the other pictures of this kind, that the Anglo-Saxon bread (hlaf) is in 




No. 20. Anglo-Saxons at Table. 

the form of round cakes, much like the Roman loaves in the pictures at 
Pompeii, and not unlike our crofs-buns at Eafter, which are no doubt 
derived from our Saxon forefathers. Another party at dinner without 
knives or forks is reprefented in the cut No. 20, taken from the fame 
manufcript (fol. 51, v°.). The tables here are without table-cloths. The 
ufe of the ringers in eating explains to us why it was confidered necelfary 
to warn the hands before and after the meal. 

The knife (cnif), as reprefented in the Saxon illuminations, has a 
peculiar form, quite different from that of the earlier knife found in the 
graves, but refembling rather clofely the form of the modern razor. 
Several of thefe Saxon knives have been found, and one of them, dug up 
in London, and now in the interefting mufeum collected by Mr. Roach 
Smith, is reprefented in the accompanying cut, No. 21.'* The blade, of 



* There is one of these knives in the Cambridge Museum, which has been there 
rather singularly labelled "a Roman razor!" Mr. Roach Smith always suspected 

fteel 



30 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



fteel (style), which is the only part preferred, has been inlaid with 
bronze. 

When the repaft was concluded, and the hands of the guefts wafhed, 
the tables appear to have been withdrawn from the hall, and the party 
commenced drinking. From the earlieft times, this was the occupation 
of the after part of the day, when no warlike expedition or prefhng 
bufinefs hindered it. The lord and his chief guefts fat at the high feat, 



No 21. An Anglo-Saxon Knife. 

while the others fat round on benches. An old chronicler, fpeaking of a 
Saxon dinner party, fays, " after dinner they went to their cups, to which 
the Englifh were very much accuftomed."* This was the cafe even 
with the clergy, as we learn from many of the ecclefiaftical laws. In the 
Ramfey Hiftory printed by Gale, we are told of a Saxon bifhop who 
invited a Dane to his houfe in order to obtain fome land from him, and 
to drive a better bargain, he determined to make him drunk. He there- 
fore preffed him to flay to dinner, and "when they had all eaten enough, 
the tables were taken away, and they paffed the reft of the day, till 
evening, drinking. He who held the office of cup-bearer, managed that 
the Dane's turn at the cup came round oftener than the others, as the 
bifhop had directed him." We know by the ftory of Dunftan and king 
Eadwy, that it was confidered a great mark of difrefpecT: to the guefts, 
even in a king, to leave the drinking early after dinner. 

Our cut, No. 22, taken from the Anglo-Saxon calendar already men- 
tioned (MS. Cotton. Julius, A. vi.), reprefents a party fitting at the 
heah-Jetl, the high feat, or dais, drinking after dinner. It is the lord of 
the houfehold and his chief friends, as is fliown by their attendant guard 

that these knives were late Saxon, and their similarity in form to those given in the 
manuscripts shows that he was correct. 

* Post praruiium ail pocula, quibus Angli nimis sunt assueti. — Chron. J. Wal- 
lingford, in Gale, p. 542. 

of 



and Sentiments. 



of honour. The cup-bearer, who is ferving them, has a napkin in his 
hand. The feat is furniihed with cuihions, and the three perfons feated 
on it appear to have large napkins or cloths fpread over their knees. 
Similar cloths are evidently reprefented in our cut No. 16. Whether 
thefe are the fetl-hrosgel, or feat-cloths, mentioned in fome of the Anglo- 
Saxon wills, is uncertain. 

It will be obferved that the greater part of the drinking-cups bear a 
refemblance in form to thofe of the more ancient period which we find 
in Anglo- Saxon graves, and of which fome examples have been given in 
the preceding chapter. We cannot tell whether thofe feen in the 
pictures be intended for glafs or other material ; but it is certain that the 
Anglo-Saxons were oftentatious of drinking-cups and other velfels made 




No. 22. An Anglo-Saxon Drinking Party. 



of the precious metals. Sharon Turner, in his Hiftory of the Anglo- 
Saxons, has colle6ted together a number of inftances of fuch valuable 
velfels. In one will, three filver cups are bequeathed 5 in another, four 
cups, two of which were of the value of four pounds ; in another, four 
filver cups, a cup with a fringed edge, a wooden cup variegated with 
gold, a wooden knobbed cup, and two very handfome drinking-cups 
(fmicere fcencing-cuppan). Other fimilar documents mention a golden 
cup, with a golden diih ; a gold cup of immenfe weight ; a diih adorned 
with gold, and another with Grecian workmanlhip (probably brought 
from Byzantium). A lady bequeathed a golden cup weighing four marks 
and a half. Mention of filver cups, filver bafins, &c, is of frequenl 

occurrence. 



3 2 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

occurrence. In 833, a king gave his gilt cup, engraved outfide with 
vine-dreffers fighting dragons, which he called his crofs-bowl, becaufe it 
had a crofs marked within it, and it had four angles projecting, alfo like a 
crofs. Thefe cups were given frequently as marks of affection and 
remembrance. The lady Ethelgiva prefented to the abbey of Ramfey, 
among other things, " two filver cups, for the ufe of the brethren in the 
refectory, in order that, while drink is ferved in them to the brethren at 
their repair, my memory may be more firmly imprinted on their hearts."* 
It is a curious proof of the value of fuch veffels, that in the pictures of 
warlike expeditions, where two or three articles are heaped together as a 
kind of fymbolical reprefentation of the value of the fpoils, veffels of the 
table and drinking-cups and drinking-horns are 
generally included. Our cut, No. 23, repreferits 
one of thefe groups (taken from the Cottonian 
Manufcript, Claudius, C. viii.) ; it contains a crown, 
a bracelet or ring, two drinking-horns, a jug, and 
two other veffels. The drinking-horn was in com- 
monjufe among the Anglo-Saxons. It is feen on 
<s **— y s*^^>. the table or in the hands of the drinkers in more 
£T> % ^~}j r?) than one of our cuts. In the will of one 

Vii'-'M^^^Xi^ Saxon lady, two buffalo-horns are mentioned) 
No. 23. Ankles of 'Value, three horns worked with gold and filver are men- 
tioned in one inventory ; and we find four horns 
enumerated among the effects of a monaftic houfe. The Mercian king 
Witlaf, with fomewhat of the fentiment of the lady Ethelgiva, gave 
to the abbey of Croyland the horn of his table, " that the elder monks 
may drink from it on feflivals, and in their benedictions remember fome- 
times the foul of the donor." 

The liquors drunk by the Saxons were chiefly ale and mead ; the 
immenfe quantity of honey that was then produced in this country, as we 
learn from Domefday-book and other records, fliows us how great mult 

* " Duos ciphos argenteos .... ad serviendum fratiibus in refectorio, qua- 
tenus, dum in eis potusedentibus fratiibus ministratur, memoria mci eorum cordibus 
arctius inculcetur." — Hist. Kamesicnsis, in Gale, p. 406. 

have 




and Sentiments. 



33 



have been the confumption of the latter article. Welih ale is efpecially 
fpoken of. Wine was alfo in ufe, though it was an expenfive article, 
and was in a great meafure reftri&ed to perfons above the common rank. 
According to Alfric's Colloquy, the merchant brought from foreign 
countries wine and oil ; and when the fcholar is afked why he does not 
drink wine, he fays he is not rich enough to buy it, " and wine is not the 
drink of children or fools, but of elders and wife men." There were, 
however, vineyards in England in the times of the Saxons, and wine was 
made from them ; but they were probably rare, and chiefly attached to 
the monaftic eftablifhments. William of Malmefbury fpeaks of a vine- 
yard attached to his monaftery, which was firft planted at the beginning 
of the eleventh century by a Greek monk who fettled there, and who 
fpent all his time in cultivating it. 

In their drinking, the Anglo-Saxons had various feftive ceremonies, 
one of which is made known to us by the popular ftory of the lady 
Rowena and the Britifh king. When the ale or wine was firft ferved, 
the drinkers pledged each other, with certain phrafes of wilhing health, 
not much unlike the mode in which we ftill take wine with each other 
at table, or as people of the lefs refined claffes continue to drink the firft 
glafs to the health of the company ; but among the Saxons the ceremony 
was accompanied with a kifs. In our cut, No. 14, the party appear to be 
pledging each other. 

The Anglo-Saxon potations were accompanied with various kinds of 
amufements. One of thefe was telling ftories, and recounting the 
exploits of themfelves or of their friends. Another was finging their 
national poetry, to which the Saxons were much attached. In the lefs 
elevated clafs, where profefled minllrels were not retained, each gueft 
was minftrel in his turn. Caedmon, as his ftory is related by Bede, 
became a poet through the emulation thus excited. One of the eccle- 
fiaftical canons enacted under king Edgar enjoins " that no prieft be a 
minftrel at the ale (ealu-fcdp), nor in any wife a6t the gleeman (gliwige), 
with himfelf or with other men." In the account of the murder of 
king Ethelbert in Herefordihire, by the treachery of Oll'a's wicked queen 
(,\. i). 792), we are told that the royal party, after dinner, " (pen! the 

p whole 



34 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



whole day with mufic and dancing in great glee." The cut, No. 24 
(taken from the Harl. MS., No. 603), is a perfecf illuftration of this 
incident of Saxon ftory. The cup-bearer is ferving the gueft with wine 
from a veffel which is evidently a Saxon imitation of the Roman 
amphora; it is perhaps the Anglo-Saxon fefler or J after ; a word, no 




No. 24. Drinking and Minjireljy. 



doubt, taken from the Latin fextarius, and carrying with it, in general, 
the notion of a certain meafure. In Saxon tranflations from the Latin, 
amphora is often rendered by fefier. We have here a choice party of 
minftrels and gleemen. Two are occupied with the harp, which appears, 
from a comparifon of Beowulf with the later writers, to have been the 
national inurnment. It is not clear from the picfure 
whether the two men are playing both on the fame 
harp, or whether one is merely holding the inftru- 
ment for the other. Another is perhaps intended 
to reprefent the Anglo-Saxon fithelere, playing on 
the fithele (the modern Englilh words fiddler and 
fiddle) ; but his inftrument appears rather to be the 
cittern, which was played with the fingers, not with 
the bow. Another reprefentation of this performer, 
from the fame manufcript, is given in 1 he cut No. 25, 
where the inftrument is better defined. The other two minftrels, in No. 24, 
an' playing en the horn, or on the Saxon pip, <>r pipe. The two dancers 
are evidently a man and a woman, and another lady to the extreme right 

teems 




Nu. 25. An Anglo-Sa. 
F'tthelart. 



and Sentiments. 



35 



feems preparing to join in the fame exercife. We know little of the 
Anglo-Saxon mode of dancing, but to judge by the words ufed to exprefs 
this amufement, hoppan (to hop), faltian and Jtcllan (to leap), and tumliau 
(to tumble), it muft have been accompanied with violent movements. 
Our cut No. 26 (from the Cottonian MS., Cleopatra, C. viii. fol. 16, v°), 
reprefents another party of minftrels, one of whom, a female, is dancing, 
while the other two are playing on a kind of cithara and on the Roman 
double flute. The Anglo-Saxon names for the different kinds of mufi- 




No. 26. Anglo-Saxon Minjlrch. 

cians moft frequently fpoken of were hearpere, the harper ; lymere, the 
trumpeter 5 pipere, the player on the pipe or flute ; Jithelere, the fiddler; 
and horn-blawere, the horn-blower. The gligman, or gleeman, was the 
fame who, at a later period, was called, in Latin, joculator, and, in 
French, a jongleur ; and another performer, called truth, is interpreted 
as a ftage player, but was probably fome performer akin to the gleeman. 
The harp feems to have flood in the higheft rank, or, at leafl, in the 
higheft popularity, of mufical inftruments; it was termed poetically the 
gle6-beam, or the glee-wood. 

Although it was confidered a very fafhionable accomplifhment among 
the Anglo-Saxons to be a good finger of verfes and a good player on the 
harp, yet the profelfed minrtrel, who went about to every fort of joyous 

aflemblage, 



36 Hiftory of Domefiic Ma?i?iers 

aiTemblage, from the feftive hall to the village wake, was a perfon not 
efteemed refpe&able. He was beneath conlideration in any other light 
than as affording amufement, and as fuch he was admitted everywhere, 
without examination. It was for this reafon that Alfred, and fubfe- 
quently Athelftan, found fuch eafy accefs in this garb to the camps of 
their enemies ; and it appears to have been a common difguife for fuch 
purpofes. The group given in the laft cut (No. 26) are intended to repre- 
fent the perfons characterifed in the text (of Prudentius) by the Latin 
word ganeones (vagabonds, ribalds), which is there glofled by the Saxon 
term gleemen (ganeonum, gliwig-manna) . Befides mufic and dancing, 
they feem to have performed a variety of tricks and jokes, to while away 
the tedioufnefs of a Saxon afternoon, or excite the coarfe mirth of the 
peafant. That fuch performers, refembling in many refpecfs the Norman 
jougleur, were ufually employed by Anglo-Saxons of wealth and rank, is 
evident from various allufions to them. Gaimar has preferred a curious 
Saxon ftory of the murder of king Edward by his ftepmother (a.d. 978), 
in which the queen is reprefented as having in her fervice a dwarf 
minftrel, who is employed to draw the young king alone to her houfe. 
According to the Anglo-Norman relator of this ftory, the dwarf was 
ikilled in various modes of dancing and tumbling, characferifed by words 
of which we can hardly now point out the exacf diftin&ion, " and could 
play many other games." 

Wolflanet un naim a-vclt, 
Ki baler c trefcher faveit ; 
Si fa-veit failler e t umber, 
E altres gius plufurs juer. 

In a Saxon manufcript in the Britilh Muleum (MS. Cotton. Tiberius. 
C. vi.), among the minftrels attendant on king David (reprefented in 
our cut, No. 27), we fee a gleeman, who is throwing up and catching 
knives and balls, a common performance of the later Norman jougleurs, 
as well as of our modern mountebanks. Some of the tricks and geftures 
of thefe performers wire of the coarfetl defcription, filch as could he only 
tolerated in a rude liate of fociety. An example will he found in a ftory 
told by William of Malmefbury of wandering minftrels, whom he had feen 

performing 



and Sentiments. 



37 



performing at a feftival at that monaftery when he was a child, and which 
we can hardly venture to give even under the veil of the original Latin. 




No. 27. Anglo-Saxon Minftrels and Gleeman. 

A poem in the Exeter manufcript defcribes the wandering character of 
the Saxon minftrels. He tells us : — 



fiva fcrVpcnde 
gefccapum hiveorfa^S 
gleo-men gumma 
geond grunda fela, 
\>earfe fecga^S , 
^one-word fprcca\>, 

fimlejuct o\i\>e norlS 

Jumne gcmctdft 
gydda glea-wne, 
gcofum unhncaivnc. 



Thus roving 
•with their lays go 
the gleemen of men 
over many lands, 
Jlate their •wants, 
utter words of thank, 
ahvays fouth or north, 
they find one 
knowing in Jongs, 
•who is liberal of gifts. — Exctoi- Book, 



3 8 Hijiory 


of Dome/lie Manners 


We are not to fuppofe that our Anglo-Saxon forefathers remained at 


table, merely drinking and liftening. On the contrary, the performance 


of the minftrels appears to have been only introduced at intervals, between 


which the guefts talked, joked, propounded and anfwered riddles, boafied 


of their own exploits, dilparaged thofe of others, and, as the liquor took 


efFecf, became noify and quarrelfome. The moral poems often allude to 


the quarrels and ilaughters i 


n which feafts ended. One of thefe poems, 


enumerating the various endowments of men, fays : — 


Jum bf& wreed taf 


e ; one is expert at dice ; 


jum btci gewittig 


one is ivitty 


at win-\>ege, 


at ivine-bibbing, 


beor-hyrde god. 


a good beer-drinker. — Exeter Book, p. 297. 


A "Monitory Poem," in th 


s fame collection, thus defcribes the manners 


of the guefts in hall : — 




\>onne mon'ige becfS 


but many are 


ma]>el-hergendra, 


lovers official con-veije, 


ivlonce wig-fmVpas, 


haughty warriors, 


•win-burgum in, 


in plea/ant cities, 


fitta\> at Jymble 


they Jit at thefeajl, 


fi/8-gied wrecafS, 


tales recount, 


•wordum •wrixla^S, 


in ivords converfe, 


•wit an fundia'Ci 


Jlri-ve to knenv 


hiuylc aesc-ftede 


•who the battle place, 


inne in rwcede 


•within the houfe, 


mid ivcrum •wunigc 


; -will with men abide ; 


\>onne ivin /nveteft 


then wine •wets 


beornes breofl-fefan, 


the man's breajl-paffions, 


breahtme Jiigfft 


fuddenly rifes 


cirm on cor\>re, 


clamour in the company, 


civide-fcral leta\> 


an outcry they fend forth 


mijfcnlice. 


•various. — Exeter Book, p. 314. 


In a poem on the various 


fortunes of men, and the different ways in 


which they come by death, 


we are told : — 


Jumum mcces ecg 


from one the fivord^s edge 


on mcodu-bcnce, 


on the mead-bench, 


yrrum calo-wofan, 


angry with ale, 


caldor o\>\>ringc% , 


life Jball expel, 


•were toln-iadum. 


a wine-fated nun:. — Exeter Book, p. 330. 




Aiul 



and Sentiments. 



39 



And in the metrical legend of St. Juliana, the evil one boafts : — 

fume ic larum getea/i, fome I by iviles have drawn, 

te gefllte fremede, to ftrife prepared, 

\>at hyfevringa that they fuddenly 

eald-af\>onean old grudges 

edniivedan, have renewed, 

beore druncne ; drunken with beer ; 

ic him byrlade I to them poured 

nvreht of ivege, difcord from the cup, 

\>wt hi in ivin-fale fo that they in the facial hall 

i>urh fweord-gripe through gripe offiuord 

faivle for let an the foul let forth 

of jlmsc-homan. from the body. — Exeter Book, p. 271. 

There were other amufements for the long evenings befides thofe 
which belonged efpecially to the hall, for every day was not a feaft-day. 
The hall was then left to the houfehold retainers and their occupations. 
But we mull now leave this part of the domellic eftabliihment. The 
ladies appear not to have remained at table long after dinner — it was 
fomewhat as in modern times — they proceeded to their own fpecial part 
of the houfe — the chamber — and thither it will be my duty to accom- 
pany them in the next chapter. I have defcribed all the ordinary fcenes 
that took place in the Anglo-Saxon hall. 



4<d Hiflory of Dome ft ic Manners 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE. BEDS AND BED-ROOMS. INFANCY 

AND CHILDHOOD AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS. CHARACTER AND 

MANNERS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON LADIES. THEIR CRUELTY TO 

THEIR SERVANTS. THEIR AMUSEMENTS. THE GARDEN ; LOVE OF 

THE ANGLO-SAXONS FOR FLOWERS. ANGLO-SAXON PUNISHMENTS. 

ALMSGIVING. 

THE bower or chamber, which, as before ftated, was, in the original 
Saxon manfions, built feparate from the hall, was a more 
private apartment than the latter, although it was ftill eafy of accefs. 
In the houfes of the rich and the noble there were, as may eafily be 
fuppofed, feveral chambers, devoted to the different purpofes of the 
houfehold, and to the reception of vifitors. It was in the chamber that 
the lord of the houfehold tranfacred his private bufinefs, and gave his 
private audiences. "We fee by the ftory of king Edwy that it was con- 
sidered a mark of effeminacy to retire from the company in the hall after 
dinner, to feek more quiet amufement in the chamber, where the men 
rejoined the ladies of the family ; yet there are numerous inftances which 
fhow that, except on feftive occalions, this was a very common practice. 
In fome cafes, where the party was not an oftentatious or public one, the 
meal was ferved in a chamber rather than in the hall. According to the 
ftory of Oibert king of Northumberland and Becrn the buzecarl, as told 
by Gaimar, it was in a chamber that Beorn's lady received the king, 
and caufed the meal to be ferved to him which ended in confequenccs lb 
fatal to the country. We have very little information relating to the 
domeftic games and amufements of the Anglo-Saxons. They feem to 
have confided, in a great meafure, in muiic and in telling ftories. They 
had games of hazard, but we are not acquainted with their character. 
Their chief game was named tcefel or tcefl, which has been explained by 

due 



and Sentiments. 



41 



dice and by chefs ; one name of the article played with, ta>fl-ftan, a table- 
Jione, would fuit either interpretation ; but another, tcefl-mon, a table-7??ara, 
would feem to indicate a game refembling our chefs.* The writers 
immediately after the conquer!: fpeak of the Saxons as playing at chefs, 
and pretend that they learnt the game from the Danes. Gaimar, who 
gives us an interefting ftory relating to the deceit praclifed upon king 
Edgar (a.d. 973) by Ethelwold, when fent to vifit the beautiful Elfthrida, 
daughter of Orgar of Devonihire, defcribes the young lady and her noble 
father as palling the day at chefs. 



Orgar jouout a un efc/ies, 

Un giu k'll aprlji des Daneis . 

Od lui jouout Eljlruet la bele. 



Benches, on which feveral 



The Ramfey hiftory, published by Gale, defcribing a bilhop's vifit to 
court late at night, fays that be found the king amufing himfelf with 
fimilar games.f An ecclefiaftical canon, enacled under king Edgar, 
enjoined that a prieft ihould not be a tceflere, or gambler. 

It was not ufual, in the middle ages, to poffefs much furniture, for in 
thofe times of infecurity, anything moveable, which could not eafily be 
concealed, was never fafe from plunderers, 
perfons could fit together, and a ftool or a 
chair for a gueft of more confideration, were 
the only feats. Our word chair is Anglo- 
Norman, and the adoption of the name 
from that language would feem to indicate 
that the moveable to which it was applied 
was unknown to the great mafs of the 
Anglo-Saxon population of the iiland. The 
Anglo-Saxon name for it was fell, a feat, 
or J'tol; the latter preferved in the modern word ftool. We find chairs 
of different forms in the illuminations of Anglo-Saxon manufcripts, but 




Anglo-Saxon Cic 



* We shall return to this subject in a subsequent chapter, 
t Regem adhuc tesserarum vel scaccarumludo longioris tsedia noctis relevanrem 
lvenit. 

g they 



4 2 



Hifiory of Dome ft ic Manners 



they are always reprefented as the feats of perfons of high rank and 
dignity, ufually of kings. The two examples given in the accompanying 
cut (No. 28), are taken from the Harleian MS., No. 603, fol. 54, v°., 
already referred to in our preceding chapters. It will be obferved that, 
although very fimple in form, they are both furnimed with cufhions. 
The chair in our cut No. 29, taken from Alfric's tranflation of Genefis 





No. 29. A King Seated. 



No. 30. King David. 



(MS. Cotton. Claudius, B. iv.), on which a king is feated, is of a different 
and more elegant conftru£tion. We fometimes find, in the manulcripts, 
chairs of fantaftic form, which were, perhaps, creations of the artift's 
imagination. Such a one is the Angular throne on which king David is 
feated with his harp, in our cut No. 30, which is alto taken from the 
Harleian Manufcript, No. 603 (fol. 68, v°.). In addition to the feat, the 
ladies in the chamber had a/camel, or footilool. 

There was a table ufed in the chamber or bower, which differed 
altogether from that ufed in the hall. It was named myfe, difc (from 
the Latin difcus), and heod; all words which convey the idea of its being 
round — leodas (in the plural) was the term applied to the leak- of a 
balance. The Latin phrafe, of the 127th Pfalm, /'// circuitu menfee tucv, 
which was evidently underftood by the Anglo-Saxon tranflators as refi rring 

to 



and Sentiments. 



43 



to a round table, is tranilated by one, on ymbhwyrfte myfan thine, and by 
another, in ymbhwyrfte beodes thincs. If we refer back to the preceding 
chapter, we ihall fee, in the fubjects which appear to exhibit a fmall 
domeftic party (fee cuts No. 15, 19, and 24), that the table is round ; and 
this was evidently the ufual form given among the Anglo-Saxons to 
the table ufed in the chamber or private room. This form has been 
preferred as a favourite one in England down to a very recent period, as 
that of the parlour-table among the clafs of fociety moft likely to retain 
Anglo-Saxon taftes and fentiments. In the pictures, the round table is 
generally reprefented as fupported on three or four legs, though there are 
inftances in which it was reprefented with one. In the latter cafe, the 
board of the table probably turned up on a hinge, as in our old parlour 
tea-tables ; and in the former it was perhaps capable of being taken off* 
the legs ; for there is reafon for believing that it was only laid out when 
wanted, and that, when no longer in ufe, it was put away on one fide of 
the room or in a clofet, in the fmalleft pollible compafs. 

We have no information to explain to us how the bower or chamber 
was warmed. In the hall, it is probable that the fire gave warmth and 
light at the fame time, although, in the fragment of the Anglo-Saxon 
poem relating to the fight at Finnefburg, there is an indiftinct intimation 
that the hall was fometimes lighted with horns, or crelfets 5 but, in the 
chamber, during the long evenings of winter, it was neceffary to have an 
artificial light to enable its occupants to read, or work, or play. The 
Anglo-Saxon name for this article, fo neceffary for domeftic comfort, was 
can del or condel (our candle) ; and, fo general was the application of this 
term, that it was even ufed figuratively as we now ufe the word lamp. 
Thus, the Anglo-Saxon poets fpoke of the fun as rodores candel (the 
candle of the firmament), woruld-candel (the candle of the world), heofon- 
condel (the candle of heaven), wyn-condel (the candle of glory). The 
candle was, no doubt, originally a mere mafs of fat plaftered round a 
wick (candel-weoc), and ftuck upon an upright flick. Hence the inftru- 
ment on which it was afterwards fupported received the name of candcl- 
flicca or candel-Jiccf, a candleftick ; and the original idea was preferred 
even when the candle fupporter had many branches, it being then called 

a 



44 Hi/lory of Domejiic Mcnviers 

a candel-treow, or candle-tree. The original arrangement of the flick 
was alio preferved ; for, down to a very recent period, the candle was not 
inferted in a focket in the candleftick as at prefent, but it was ftuck upon 
a lpike. The Anglo-Saxon writers fpeak of candel-fnytels, or fnufters. 
Other names lefs ufed, for a candle or fome article for giving light, were 
blacern or blcecern, which is explained in gloffaries by the Latin lucerna, 
and thcecela, the latter fignifying merely a light. It was ufual, alio, 
among our Saxon forefathers, as among ourfelves, to fpeak of the inftru- 
ment for illumination as merely leoht, a light — " bring me a light." 
A candleftick and candle are reprefented in one of the cuts in our laft 
chapter (cut No. 19). The Anglo-Saxons, no doubt, derived the ufe of 
lamps from the Romans 3 and they were fo utterly at a lofs for a word to 
defcribe this mode of illumination, that they always called it 
\Qf leoht-fat, a light-vat, or veffel of light. In our cut (No. 51) 
we have an Anglo-Saxon lamp, placed on a candelabrum or 
ftand, exactly in the Roman manner. It will be remem- 
= bered that Affer, a writer of fomewhat doubtful authenticity, 

f aicribes to king Alfred the invention of lanterns, as a pro- 

| tecfion to the candle, to prevent it from fwealing in conle- 

quence of the wind entering through the crevices of the 



4 apartments — not a very bright picture of the comforts of an 

No. 31. Anglo-Saxon chamber. The candles were made of wax as 

Startd?" well as tallow. The candleftick was of different materials. 

In one inftance we find it termed, in Anglo-Saxon, a teoht- 

ifern, literally a light-iron : perhaps this was the term ufed for the lamp- 

ftand, as figured in our laft cut. In the inventories we have mention of 

ge-lonene candel-Jliccan (candlefticks of bone), of lilver-gilt candlefticks, 

and of ornamented candlefticks. 

A bed was a ufual article of furniture in the bower or chamber; 
though there were, no doubt, in large manfions, chambers let apart as 
bedrooms, as well as chambers in which there was no bed, or in which 
a bed could be made for the occafion. The account given by Gaimar, 
as quoted above 3 of the vifil of king Ofbert to Beorn's lady, feems to 
imply that the chamber in which the lady gave the king his meal had a 

bed 



and Sentiments. 



45 



bed in it. The bed itfelf feems ufually to have confifted merely of a 
fack (fceccing) filled with ftraw, and laid on a bench or board. Hence 
words ufed commonly to fignify the bed itfelf were Icence (a bench), and 
Jireow (ftraw) : and even in king Alfred's tranilation of Bede, the ftate- 
ment, " he ordered to prepare a bed for him/' is expreiled in Anglo- 
Saxon by, he heht him Jireowne ge-gearwian, literally, he ordered to 
prepare ftraw for him. All, in fadt, that had to be done when a bed 
was wanted, was to take the bed-fack out of the cyft, or cheft, fill it with 
freih ftraw, and lay it on the bench. In ordinary houfes it is probable 




No. 32. Anglo-Saxon Beds. 



that the bench for the bed was placed in a recefs at the fide of the 
room, in the manner we ftill fee in Scotland ; and hence the- bed itfelf 
was called, among other names, cota, a cot ; cryb, a crib or ftall 3 and 
clif or clyf, a recefs or clofet. From the fame circumftance a bedroom 
was called bed-clyfa or led-cleofa, and ied-cnjh, a bed-clofet or bed-cove. 
Our cut (No. 32), taken from Alfric's verfion of Genefis (Claudius, B. i\ . >, 
reprefents beds of this defcription. Benches are evidently placed in 
recefles at the fide of the chamber, with the beds laid upon them, and 
the recefles are feparated from the reft of the apartment by a curtain, 
bed-war ft or hri/J'U: The modern word bedftead means, literally, no 

more 



4 6 



Hijiory of "Domeftic Manners 



more than "a place for a bed 3" and it is probable that what we call 
bedfteads were then rare, and only poffeffed by people of rank. Two 
examples are given in the annexed cut (No. 33), taken from the Har- 
leian MS., No. 603. Under the head were placed a loljiar and a pyle 
(pillow), which were probably alfo fluffed 
•\j with ftraw. The clothes with which the 
fleeper was covered, and which appear in the 
pictures fcanty enough, were fcyte, a fheet, 
bed-felt, a coverlet, which was generally of 
fome thicker material, and hed-reqf, bed- 
clothes. We know from a multitude of 
authorities, that it was the general cuftom 
of the middle ages to go into bed quite 
naked. The fketchy character of the Anglo- 
Saxon drawings renders it difficult fometimes 
to judge of minute details ; but, from the 
accompanying cuts, it appears that an Anglo- 

No. 33. Anglo-Saxon Beds. . . . , , , „ . j n . • 

& Saxon going into bed, having ltnpped ail his 

or her clothes off, firft wrapped round his body a fheet, and then drew 
over him the coverlet. Sharon Turner has given a lift of the articles 
connected with the bed, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon wills and in- 
ventories. In the will of a man we find bed-clothes (ted-reafes), with a 
curtain {hyrfte), and fheet (hopp-fcytan), and all that thereto belongs ; 
and he gives to his fon the bed-reqfe, or bed-cloth, and all its appur- 
tenances. An Anglo-Saxon lady gives to one of her children two chefts 
and their contents, her beft bed-curtain, linen, and all the clothes 
belonging to it. To another child ihe leaves two chefts, and " all the 
bed-clothes that to one bed belong." On another occafion we read of 
pulvinar 1/111/ m de palleo: not a pillow of ftraw, as Sharon Turner very 
erroneoufly tranilates it, but a pillow of a fort of rich cloth made in the 
middle ages. A goat-lkin bed-covering was lent to an Anglo-Saxon 
abbot ; and bear-lkins are fometimes noticed, as if a part of bed furniture. 
The bed-room, or chamber, and the fitting-room were uliiallv identical •. 
for we mull bear in mind that in the domeftic manners of the middle 




and Sentiments. 



47 



ages die fame idea of privacy was not connected with the fleeping-room 
as at the prefent day. Gaimar has preferred an anecdote of Anglo- 
Saxon times curiouily illuftrative of this point. King Edgar — a fecond 
David in this refpett — married the widow of Ethelwold, whom he had 
murdered in order to clear his way to her bed. The king and queen 
were fleeping in their bed, which is defcribed as furrounded by a rich 
curtain, made of a fluff which we cannot eafily explain, when Dunftan, 
uninvited, but unhindered, entered the chamber to expoftulate with 
them on their wickednefs, and came to the king's bedilde, where he 
Hood over them, and entered into converfation — 



A Londres ert Edgar li reis ; 
En Jen lit jut e la raine, 
Entur els out une curtine 
Delge, d^un faille ejearhnan. 
EJte--vus V arccvejque Dunjlan 
Ties par matin mint en la chambrt 
Sur un pecul de •vermail lambre 
S'eft apue eel arce-vejque. 



King Edgar ivas at London ; 
He lay in A is bed ivith the queen, 
Round them ivas a curtain 
Spread, made of Jcarlet paille. 
Behold archbijhop Dunjlan 
Came into the chamber very early 
On a bed-poft of red plank 
The archbijhop leaned. 



In the account of the murder of king Ethelbert by the inftrumentality of 
the queen of king Offa, as it is told by Roger of Wendover, we fee the 
queen ordering to be prepared for the royal gueff, a chamber, which was 
adorned for the occafion with fumptuous furniture, as his bed-room. 
" Near the king's bed fhe caufed a feat to be prepared, magnificently 
decked, and furrounded with curtains ; and underneath it the wicked 
woman caufed a deep pit to be dug." Into this pit the king was pre- 
cipitated the moment he trufted himfelf on the treacherous feat. It is 
clear from the context that the chamber thus prepared for the king was 
a building apart, and that it had only a ground-floor. 

It was in the chamber that the child, while an infant, was brought 
up by its mother. We have few contemporary notices of the treatment 
children at this early age by the Anglo-Saxons, but probably it differed 
little from the general praclice of a later period. Towards the clofe of 
the thirteenth century, an Engliihman named Walter de Bibblefworth, 
who wrote, as a great proportion of" Englilh writers at that day did, in 

French 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



French verfe — French as it was then fpoken and written in England — 
has left us a very curious metrical vocabulary, compiled in French with 
interlinear explanations of the words in Englifh, which commences with 
man's infancy. "As foon as the child is born," fays the author, "it muft 
be fwathed ; lay it to fleep in its cradle, and you mull have a nurfe to 
rock it to fleep." 

Kaunt le emfhfera ne'es, 
Lors deyt ejire may/olez, 
En foun berz Fenfaunt c/wc/iet, 
De une bercere itus puwoyet, 
Oil par fa norice feyt berce. 

This was the manner in which the new-born infant was treated in all 
grades of fociety. If we turn to one of the more ferious romances, we 
find it pracufed among princes and feudal chiefs equally as among the 
poor. Thus, when the princefs Parife, wandering in the wild woods, is 
delivered in the open air, fhe firft wraps her child in a piece of feudal, 
torn apparently from her rich robe, and then binds, or fwathels, it with a 
white cloth : — 

La dame le conroie a un pan de cendex, 

Puis a pris un blanc drap y Ji a fesjians bendess. — Parise la Duchesse, p. 76. 

When the robbers carry away the child by night, thinking they had 
gained fome rich booty, they find that they have fiolen a newly-born 
infant, "all fwatheled." 

Lai trcverent Fanffant, trejlot anmalote. — Ibid. p. 80. 

This cuftom of fvvatheling children in their infancy, though evidently 
injurious as well as ridiculous, has preTailed from a very early period, and 
is frill pracYifed in fome parts of Europe. We can hardly doubt that our 
Anglo-Saxon forefathers fwatheled their children, although the practice 
is not very clearly defcribed by any of their writers. We derive the word 
itfelf from the Anglo-Saxon language, in which befwethan means to 
fwathe or bincL, fuethe fignifies a band or fwathe, and fwethel or fwcethiL, 
a fwaddling-band. Thefe words appear, however, to have been ufed in 
a more extenfive fenfe among the Anglo-Saxons than their reprefentatives 



and Sentiments, 



49 



in more recent times, and as I have not met with them applied in this 
reftrkted fenfe in Anglo-Saxon writers, I ihould not haftily aflume from 
them that our early Teutonic forefathers did fwathe their new-born 
children. In an Anglo-Saxon poem on the birth of Chrift, contained in 
the Exeter Book (p. 45), the poet fpeaks of — 



Bearnes gebyrda, 
\>a he in binne %uas 
in cildes hho 
cla\>um bizuunden. 



The child's birth, 
ivhen he in the bin ivas 
in a child's form 
'with cloths 'wound round. 



Thefe words refer clearly to the practice of fwaddling ; and, though the 
Anglo-Saxon artift has not here portrayed his object very diltin&ly, we 
can hardly doubt that, in our cut (No. 34), taken from the Anglo-Saxon 
manuicript of Caedmon, the child, which its mother is reprefented as 
holding, is intended to be fwathed. 

The word lin, ufed in the lines of the Anglo-Saxon poem juft quoted, 
which means a hutch or a mansrer, has reference, of courfe, to the cir- 




No. 34. Anglo-Saxon Mother and Child. 

cumftances of the birth of the Saviour, and is not here employed to 
fignify a cradle. This laft word is itfelf Anglo-Saxon, and has (tood its 
ground in our language fuccc Is fully againft the influence of the Anglo- 

11 Norman, 



50 Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 

Norman, in which it was called a bers or berfel, from the latter of which 
is derived the modem French bergeau. Another name for a cradle was 
crib ; a poem in the Exeter Book (p. 87) fpeaks of cild geong on crybbe 
(a young child in a cradle). Our cut No. 35, alfo taken from the manu- 




No. 35. Anglo-Saxon Child in its Cradle. 



fcript of Csedmon, reprefents an Anglo-Saxon cradle of rather rude con- 
ftruction. The illuminators of a later period often reprefent the cradle 
of elegant form and richly ornamented. The Anglo-Saxon child appears 
here alfo to be fwaddled, but it is ftill drawn too inaccurately to be 
decifive on this point. The latter illuminators were more particular and 
correct in their delineations, and leave no doubt of the univerfal practice 
of fwaddling infants. A good example is given in our cut No. 36, taken 
from an illuminated manufcript of the fourteenth century, of which a 
copy is given in the large work of the late M. du Sommerard. 

There is a very curious paragraph relating to infants in the Poeniten- 
tiale of Theodore, archbifhop of Canterbury, which furniihes us with a 
lingular picture of early Anglo-Saxon domellic life, for Theodore rlouriihed 
in the latter half of the feventh century. It may be perhaps right to 
explain that a Poenitentiale was a code of eccletiafiical laws directing the 
proportional degrees of penance for each particular clafi and degree of 
crimes and offences againft public and private morals, and thai thefe laws 

penetrate 



and Sentiments. 



5i 



penetrate to the innermoft recedes of domeftic life. The Pocnitentiale of 
archbilhop Theodore dire&s that " if a woman place her infant by the 
hearth, and the man put water in the cauldron, and it boil over, and the 
child be fcalded to death, the woman mull do penance for her negligence, 




36. Mother and Child. 



but the man is acquitted of blame."* As this accident mull have been 
of very frequent occurrence to require a particular direction in a code of 
laws, it implies great negligence in the Anglo-Saxon mothers, and feems 
to fhow that, commonly, at leaf! at this early period, they had no cradles 
for their children, but laid them, fwaddled as they were, on the ground 
clofe by the fire, no doubt to keep them warm, and that they left them 
in this fituation. 

We are not informed if there were any fixed period during which the 
infant was kept in fwaddling-cloths, but probably when it was thought 
no longer neceflary to keep it in the arms or in the cradle, it was relieved 
from its bands, and allowed to crawl about the floor and take care of 
itfelf. Walter de Eibblefworth, the Anglo-Norman writer of the thir- 
teenth century already quoted, tells us briefly that a child is left to creep 
about before it has learnt to go on its feet : — 

Le cnfaunt coixnt de chatouncr 
A-vaunt ke jache a fees ahr. 



* Mater, si juxta focum inlantem suum posuerit, et homo aquam in caldarium 
miserit, et ebullita aqua infans supeifusus mortuus fueritj pro negligentia mater 

poeniteat, ct ille homo securus sit. 

When 



52 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 

When the Anglo-Saxon youth, if a boy, had pafled his infancy, he 
entered that age which was called cnithad (knighthood), which lafted 
from about eight years of age until manhood. 

It is very rare that we can catch in hiStory a glimpfe of the internal 
economy of the Anglo-Saxon household. Enough, however, is told to 
mow us that the Saxon woman in every clafs of fociety pofferfed thofe 
characteristics which are Still considered to be the beft traits of the 
character of Englishwomen ; me was the attentive houfewife, the tender 
companion, the comforter and confoler of her hufband and family, the 
virtuous and noble matron. Home was her efpecial place ; for we are 
told in a poem in the Exeter Book (p. 337) that, "It befeems a damfel 
to be at her board (table) 5 a rambling woman fcatters words, She is 
often charged with faults, a man thinks of her with contempt, oft her 
cheek fmites." In all ranks, from the queen to the peafant, we find the 
lady of the houfehold attending to her domeftic duties. In 686, John 
of Beverley performed a fuppofed miraculous cure on the lady of a 
Yorkfhire earl 5 and the man who narrated the miracle to Bede the 
hiftorian, and who dined with John of Beverley at the earl's houfe after 
the cure, Said, " She prefented the cup to the biShop (John) and to me, 
and continued Serving us with drink as She had begun, till dinner was 
over." Domeftic duties of this kind were never considered as degrading, 
and they were performed with a Simplicity peculiarly characteristic of the 
age. Bede relates another Story of a miraculous cure performed on an 
earl's wife by St. Cuthbert, in the fequel of which we find the lady 
going forth from her houfe to meet her huSband's visitor, holding the 
reins while he dismounts, and conducting him in. The wicked and 
ambitious queen Elfthrida, when her Step-Son king Edward approached 
her residence, went out in perfon to attend upon him, and invite him to 
enter, and, on his refuSal, She Served him with the cup herSelf, and it 
was while Stooping to take it that he was treacherously Stabbed by one 
of her attendants. In their chamber, betides Spinning and weaving, the 
ladies were employed in needlework and embroidery, and the Saxon 
ladies were fo Skilful in this art, that their work, under the name ot 
EngliSh work (opus Anglicum), was celebrated on the continent. We 

read 



and Sentiments. 53 



read of a Saxon lady, named Ethelfwitha, who retired with her maidens 
to a houfe near Ely, where her mother was buried, and employed herfelf 
and them in making a rich chafuble for the monks. The four princeifes, 
the fitters of king Ethelftan, were celebrated for their ikill in {pinning, 
weaving, and embroidering ; William of Malmefbury tells us that their 
father, king Edward, had educated them "in fuch wife, that in child- 
hood they gave their whole attention to letters, and afterwards employed 
themfelves in the labours of the diftaff and the needle." The reader 
will remember in the ftory of the Saxon queen Olburgha, the mother 
of the great Alfred, how fhe fat in her chamber, furrounded by her 
children, and encouraging them in a tafte for literature. The ladies, 
when thus occupied, were not inacceiiible to their friends of either fex. 
When Dunftan was a youth, he appears to have been always a welcome 
vifitor to the ladies in their "bowers," on account of his ikill in mufic 
and in the arts. His contemporary biographer tells us of a noble lady, 
named Ethelwynn, who, knowing his ikill in drawing and defigns, 
obtained his afliftance for the ornaments of a handibme Hole which ilie 
and her women were embroidering. Dunftan is reprefented as bringing 
his harp with him into the apartment of the ladies, and hanging it up 
againft the wall, that he might have it ready to play to them in the 
intervals of their work. Editha, the queen of Edward the Confeffor, 
was well-known as a ikilful needle-woman, and as extenfively verfed in 
literature. Ingulfs ftory of his fchoolboy-days, if it be true (for there 
is confiderable doubt of the authenticity of Ingulfs "Hiftory"), and of 
his interviews with queen Edith, gives us a curious picture of the fim- 
plicity of an Anglo-Saxon court, even at the lateft period of their 
monarchy. " I often met her," he fays, " as I came from fchool, and 
then fhe queftioned me about my ftudies and my verfes; and willingly 
paffing from grammar to logic, fhe would catch me in the fubtleties of 
argument. She always gave me two or three pieces of money, which 
were counted to me by her handmaiden, and then fent me to the royal 
larder to refreih myfelf. 

Several circumftances arifing out of certain rivalries of focial infli- 
tutions render it fomewhat difficult to form an eftimate of the moral 

charadter 



54 Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 

character of the Anglo-Saxons. In the firft place, before the introduction 
of Chriftianity, marriage was a mere civil institution, confifted chiefly in a 
bargain between the father of the lady and the man who fought her, and 
was completed with few formalities, except thofe of feafting and rejoicing. 
After the young lady was out of the control of her parents, the two fexes 
were on a footing of equality to each other, and the marriage tie was fo 
little binding, that, in cafe of difagreement, it was at the will of either of 
the married couple to feparate, in which cafe the relatives or friends of 
each party interfered, to fee that right was done in the proportional 
repayment, of marriage money, dowry, &c, and after the feparation each 
party was at liberty to marry again. This ftate of things is well illuftrated 
in the Icelandic flory of the Burnt Njal, recently tranilated by Dr. Daient, 
and it was not abolifhed by the fecular laws, after the converfion of the 
Anglo-Saxons to Chriftianity, marriage ftill continuing to be, in fact, a 
civil inftitution. But the higher clergy, at leaft, who were thofe who 
were raoft ftrongly infpired with the Romifh fentiments, difapproved 
entirely of this view of the marriage ftate, and, although the Saxon priefls 
appear not to have hefitated in being prefent at the fecond marriages 
after fuch feparations, they were apparently forbidden by the eccleliaftical 
laws from giving their blefting to them.* With fuch views of the con- 
jugal relations, we cannot be furprifed if the alfociating together of a 
man and woman, without the ceremonies of marriage, was looked upon 
without difguft ; in fact, this was the cafe throughout weftern Europe 
during the middle ages, in fpite of the docfrines of the church, and the 
offspring was hardly considered as difpoffeffed of legal rights. It would 
be eafy to point out examples illuftrating this ftate of things. Again, the 
priefthood among the unconverted Saxons was probably, as it appears 
among the Icelanders in the ftory of the Burnt Njal juft alluded to, a 



* This, I suppose, is the meaning of the canon of Alfric (No. 9), which allows 
a layman to marry, with a dispensation, a second time, "if his wife desert him" 
(gyf &" w'f at fy l '^)i but the priest was not allowed to give his blessing to the 
marriage, because it was a case in which the church enjoined a penance, the per- 
formance of which it would he his duty to require. But the meaning of the 
Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical laws on this subject is rather obscure. 

fort 



and Senti?ne?its. 55 



fort of family polfeflion,* the priefts themfelves being what we Should 
call family men 5 fo that when the Anglo-Saxon people were Chriftians, 
and no longer pagans, the mafs of the clergy, whatever may have been 
their fincerity as Chriftians, could not understand, or, at leaft, were 
unwilling to accept, the new Romith doctrine which required their 
celibacy. In both thefe cafes, the Anglo-Saxon ecclefiaftical writers, 
who are our chief authority on this fubject, and were the molt bigoted 
of the Romifh party, fpeak in terms of exaggerated virulence, on the 
fcore of morality, againft practices which the Anglo-Saxon people had 
not been ufed to confider as immoral at all. Thus, we fhould be led to 
believe, from the accounts of thefe ecclefiaftical moralifts, that the Anglo- 
Saxon clergy were infamous for their incontinence, whereas their decla- 
mations probably mean only that the Anglo-Saxon priefts perfifted in 
having wives and families. The fecular laws contain frequent allufions 
to the continuance of principles relating to the marriage ftate, which 
were derived from the older period of paganifm, and fome of thefe are 
extremely curious. Thus, the laws of king Ethelred provide that a man 
who feduces another man's wife, Shall make reparation, not only as in 
modern times, by paying pecuniary damages, but alio by procuring him 
another wife ! or, in the words of the original, " If a freeman have been 
familiar with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his wer-gild (the 
money compensation for the killing of a man), and provide another wife 
with his own money, and bring her home to the other." By a law of 
king Ine, " if any man buy a wife (that is, if the bargain with her fa! her 



* This fact of family priesthood may perhaps explain a circumstance in the 
early history of Northumbria, which has much puzzled some antiquaries; I mean 
the story, given by Bede, of the conversion of king Edwin, and of the part acted on 
that occasion by the Northumbrian priest Coifi. The place where the priesthood 
was held, and where the temple stood, was called Godmundingaham, a name which 
it has preserved, slightly modified, to the present day. This name has been the 
victim of" the most absurd attempts at derivation, which are not worth repeating 
here, because every one who knows the Anglo-Saxon language, and anything of 
Anglo-Saxon antiquities, is aware that it can only have one meaning— the home, 
or head residence, of the Godmundings, or descendants of Godmund. Perhaps the 
priesthood was at this time in the family of the Godmundings, and Coifi may have 
been then the head of the family. 

has 



>> 



56 Hiftory of ' Domeftic Manners 

has been completed), and the marriage take not place," he was required 
to pay the money, betides other compenfation. And again, by one of 
Alfred's laws, it was provided, " If any one deceive an unbetrothed 
woman, and Sleep with her, let him pay for her, and have her afterwards 
to wife ; but if the father of the woman will not give her, let him pay 
money according to her dowry." Regulations relating to the buying of 
a wife, are found in the Anglo-Saxon laws. 

We learn nothing in the facts of hiftory to the difcredit of the Anglo- 
Saxon character in general. As in other countries, in the fame condition of 
fociety, they appear capable of great crimes, and of equally great acts of 
goodnefs and virtue. Generally fpeaking, their leaft amiable trait was the 
treatment of their fervants or Haves ; for this clafs among the Anglo-Saxons 
were in a ftate of abfolute fervitude, might be bought and fold, and had 
no protection in the law againil their mailers and miftrefles, who, in fact, 
had power of life and death over them. We gather from the ecclefiaftical 
canons that, at leaft in the earlier periods of Anglo-Saxon hiftory, it was 
not unufual for fervants to be fcourged to death by or by order of their 
miftrefles. Some of the collections of local miracles, fuch as thofe of 
St. Swithun, at Winchester (of the tenth century), furnifh us with horrible 
pictures of the cruel treatment to which female Slaves efpecially were 
Subjected. For comparatively flight offences they were loaded with gyves 
and fetters, and Subjected to all kinds of tortures. Several of thefe are 
curioufly illuftrative of domeftic manners. On one occafion, the maid- 
fervant of Teothic the bell-maker (campanarius) , of Winchefter, was, for 
"a flight offence," placed in iron fetters, and chained up by the feet and 
hands all night. Next morning lhe was taken out to be frightfully 
beaten, and fhe was put again into her bonds 5 but in the enfuing night 
flie contrived to make her efcape, and fled to the church to feek 
Sanctuary at the tomb of St. Swithun, for being in a ftate of fervitude 
there was no legal protection for her. On another occaiion, a female 
Servant had been ftolen from a former matter, and had pafled into the 
pofleflion of another mailer in Winchefter. One day her former mailer 
came to Winchefter, and the girl, hearing of it, went to Speak to him. 
When her miftrefe heard that lhe had been Seen to talk with a man from 



and Sentiments. 



57 



a dillant province, ihe ordered her to be thrown into fetters, and treated 
very cruelly. Next day, while the miftrefs had gone out on feme buii- 
nefs, leaving her iervant at home in fetters, the latter made her eicape 
fimilarly to the fandtuary of the church. Another fervant-girl in Win- 
chefter, taking her mailer's clothes to warn in the river, was fet upon by 
thieves, who robbed her of them. Her mailer, afcribing the milhap to 
her own negligence, beat her very feverely, and then put her in fetters, 
from which me made her efcape like the others. The interemng fcene 



^H 




No. 37. Wafting and Scourging. 



reprefented in our cut, No. 37, taken from the Harleian MS., No. 603, 
fol. 14, v°., may be regarded as mowing us the fcourging of a Have. In 
a pidture in Alfric's verfion of Generis, the man fcourged, initead of 
being tied by the feet, is fixed by the body in a cloven poft, in a rather 
lingular manner. The aptnefs with which the Saxon ladies made life oJ 
the fcourge is illustrated by one of William of Malmefbury's anecdotes, 
who tells us that, when king Ethelred was a childj he oner fo irritated 

1 his 



58 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



his mother, that not having a whip, fhe beat him with fome candles, 
which were the firft thing that fell under her hand, until he was almoft 
infenfible. " On this account he dreaded candles during the reft of his 
life, to fuch a degree that he would never fuffer the light of them to be 
introduced in his pre fence !" 

The cruelty of the Anglo-Saxon ladies to their fervants offers a con- 
trail to the generally mild character of the punifhments inflicted by 
the Anglo-Saxon laws. The laws of Ethelred contain the following 
injunction, fhowing how contrary capital punilhment is to the fpirit of 
Anglo-Saxon legiflation : — "And the ordinance of our lord, and of his 
witan (parliament), is, that Chriftian men for 
all too little be not condemned to death ; but 
in general let mild punilhment be decreed, 
for the people's need ; and let not for a little 
God's handywork and his own purchafe be 
deftroyed, which he dearly bought." This 
injunction is repeated in the laws of Canute. 
It appears that the ufual method of inflicting 
death upon criminals was by hanging. Our 
cut, No. 38, taken from the illuminations 
to Alfric's verflon of Genefis, reprefents an 
Anglo-Saxon gallows {galga), and the rather 
primitive method of carrying the laft penalty 
of the law into effect. The early illuminated 
manufcripts give us few reprefentations of 
popular punifhments. The Anglo-Saxon 
vocabularies enumerate the following implements of punilhment, befides 
the galga, or gallows : fetters (fceter, cops), diftinguiihed into foot-fetters 
and hand-fetters ; fhackles {fcacul, or fccacul), which appear to have 
been ufed fpecially for the neck ; a fwipa, or fcourge 3 ofiig gi/rd, a 
knotted rod ; tindig, explained by the Latin Jcorpio, and meaning 
apparently a whip with knots or plummets at the end of thongs, like 
thole ufed by the charioteers in the cuts in our next chapter; and an 
inftrument of torture called a threpel, which is explained by the Latin 

equuleus 



and Sentiments. 



59 



equuleus. The following cut, No. 39, from the Harleian MS., No. 603 (fo 
often quoted), ihows us the flocks, generally placed by the fide of the public 
road at the entrance to the town. Two other offenders are attached to 
the columns of the public building, 



perhaps a court-houfe, by apparently 
a rope and a chain. The Anglo- 
Saxon laws prefcribe few corporal 
punilhments, but fubftitute for them 
the payment of fines, or compenfa- 
tion-money, and thefe are propor- 
tioned to the offences with very 
extraordinary minutenefs. Thus, to 
fele£t a few examples from the very 




Pumftmients. 



numerous lift of injuries which may be done to a man's perfon, — if any 
one ftruck off an ear, he was to pay twelve lhillings, and, if an eye, fifty 
fhillings; if the nofe were cut through, the payment was nine lhillings. 
" For each of the four front teeth, fix fhillings ; for the tooth which 
ftands next to them, four fhillings ; for that which follows, three fhillings ; 
and for all the others, a fhilling each." If a thumb were ftruck off, it was 
valued at twenty fhillings. "If the fhooting finger were ftruck off" 
(a term which fhows how incorreclly it has been affumed that the Anglo- 
Saxons were not accuftomed to the bow), the compenfation was eight 
fhillings ; for the middle finger, four fhillings ; for the ring-finger, fix 
fhillings ; and for the little finger eleven fhillings. The thumb-nail was 
valued at three fhillings ; and the finger-nails at one fhilling each. 

We have little information on the fecrets of the toilette of the Anglo- 
Saxons. We know from many fources that wafliing and bathing Mere 
frequent practices among them. The ufe of hot baths they probably 
derived from the Romans. The vocabularies give thermce as the Latin 
equivalent. They are not unfrequently mentioned in the ecclefiaftical 
laws, and in the canons paffed in the reign of king Edgar, warm baths 
and foft beds are profcribed as domeftic luxuries which tended t<> 
effeminacy. If thefe were really the thermce of the Romans, it is 
perhaps the hoftility of the afcetic part of the Romifh clergy which 



60 Hijiory of Domejiic Mariners 

caufed them to be difcontinued and forgotten. Our cut No. 37 repre- 
fents a party at their ablutions. We conftantly find among the articles 
in the graves of Anglo-Saxon ladies tweezers, which were evidently 
intended for eradicating fuperfluous hairs, a circumftance which con- 
tributes to mow that they paid fpecial attention to hair-drefling. To 
judge from the colour of the hair in fome of the illuminations, we might 
be led to fuppofe that fometimes they ftained it. The young men feem 
to have been more foppiih and vain of their perfons than the ladies, and 
fome of the old chronicles, fuch as the Ely hiftory, tell us (which we 
mould hardly have expecled) that this was efpecially a characferiftic of 
the Daniih invaders, who, we are told, "following the cuftom of their 
country, ufed to comb their hair every day, bathed every Saturday, often 
changed their clothes, and ufed many other fuch frivolous means of 
fetting off the beauty of their perfons."* 

There is every reafon for believing that the Anglo-Saxon ladies were 
fond of gardens and flowers, and many alluvions in the writings of that 
period intimate a warm appreciation of the beauties of nature. The 
poets not unfrequently take their companions from flowers. Thus, in a 
poem in the Exeter Book, a pleafant fmell is defcribed as being — 

Sivccca fwctafl, Of odours fwectef, 

fivylce on fumeres tid fuch as in fummer^s tide 

Jlincaft onfowmn, fragrance fend forth in places, 

jla\>elum fcejte , f oft in their ftaticns, 

ivynnum cefter luongum, 3°y ou fly °^ er f ^ ie plains, 

ivyrta geblowene bloivn plants 

hunig-foivende. honey-foiving, — Exeter Book, p. 178. 

And one of the poetical riddles in the fame collection contains the lines — 

Ic eom on fence I am in odour 

frengre \>onne riccls, ftrongcr than incenfe f 

o\>\>e rofajy, or the rofe is } 

on eor\>an tyrf which on eartlCs turf 

•wynlic ivcaxc% ; pleafant grows ; 



'* Hahebant etiam ex consuetudine patriae unoquoque die comam pectere, 
sabbatis balneare, saepe etiam vestituram mutare, et formam corporis multis talibus 
frivolis adjuvare. — Hist. Eliensis ap. Gale, p. 547. 



and Sentiments. 6 1 



ic eom wrajlre ]>onne hco. I am more delicate than it. 

\>eah \>a liliefy Though that the lily be 

leof mon-cynnc, dear to mankind, 

beorht on blojtman, bright in its blofl'om, 

ic eom betre \>onne heo. I am better than it. — Exeter Book, p. 423. 

So in another of thefe poems we read — - 

Fager fugla rcord, Sweet -was the Jong of birds, 

folde gebloivcn, the earth tuas covered ivith flowers, 

geacas gear budon. cuckoos announced the year. — Ibid. p. 146. 

Before we quit entirely the Saxon ball, and its feftivities and cere- 
monies, we mufl mention one circumftance connected with them. The 
laws and cuftoms of the Anglo-Saxons earnefily enjoined the duty of 
almlgiving, and a multitude of perfons partook of the hofpitality of the 
rich man's manfion, who were not worthy to be admitted to his tables. 
Thefe affembled at meal-times outride the gate of his houfe, and it was 
a cuftom to lay afide a portion of the provilions to be diftributed among 
them, with the fragments from the table. In Alfric's homily for the 
fecond Sunday after Pentecoft, the preacher, after dwelling on the ftory 
of Lazarus, who was fpurned from the rich man's table, appeals to his 
Anglo-Saxon audience — " many Lazarufes ye have now lying at your 
gates, begging for your fuperfluity." Bede tells us of the good king 
Ofwald, that when he was once fitting at dinner, on Eafter-day, with his 
bilhop, having a filver difli full of dainties before him, as they were jufi. 
ready to blels the bread, the fervant whofe duty it was to relieve the 
poor, came in on a fudden and told the king that a great multitude of 
needy perfons from all parts were fitting in the flxeets begging fome alms 
of the king. The latter immediately ordered the provilions let before 
him to be carried to the poor, and the dilh to be cut in pieces and 
divided among them. In the picture of a Saxon houfe given in our firft 
chapter (p. 15), we fee the lord of the houfehold on a fort of throne at the 
entrance to his hall, prefiding over the distribution of his charity. This 
feat, generally under an arch or canopy, is often represented in the Saxon 
manufcripts, and the chief or lord feated under it, diltributing juftice or 
charity. In the accompanying cut, No. 40, taken from the Anglo-Saxon 

manufcript 



62 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



manufcript of Prudentius, the lady Wifdom is reprefented feated on fuch 
a throne. It was, perhaps, the lurli-geat-fetl, or feat at the burh-gate, 
mentioned as characferiftic of the rank of the thane in the following 
extracf from a treatife on ranks in fociety, printed with the Anglo-Saxon 




No. 40. Wifdom on her Throne. 



laws : "And if a eeorl thrived, fo that he had fully five hides of his own 
land, church (or perhaps private chapel), and kitchen (kycenan), bell- 
houfe, and burh-gate-feat, and fpecial duty in the king's hall, then was 
he thenceforth worthy of the dignity of thane." 



and Sentiments. 63 



CHAPTER IV. 

OUT OF DOOR AMUSEMENTS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. HUNTING AND 

HAWKING. HORSES AND CARRIAGES. TRAVELLING. MONEY- 
DEALINGS. 

THE progrefs of fociety from its firft formation to the full develop- 
ment of civilization, has been compared not inaptly to the life of 
man. In the childhood and youth of fociety, when the population was 
not numerous, and a fervile clafs performed the chief part of the labour 
neceffary for adminilrering to the wants or luxuries of life, people had a 
far greater proportion of time on their hands to till up with amufements 
than at a later period, and many that are now confidered frivolous, or are 
only indulged in at rare intervals of relaxation, then formed the principal 
occupations of men's lives. We have glanced at the in-door amufements 
of the Anglo-Saxons in a previous chapter ; but their out-door recreations, 
although we have little information refpecting them, were certainly much 
more numerous. The multitude of followers who, in Saxon times, 
attended on each lord or rich man as their military chief, or as their 
domeitic fupporter, had generally no ferious occupation during the greater 
part of the day; and this abundance of unemployed time was not con- 
fined to one clafs of fociety, for the artifan had to work lefs to gain his 
fubfiftence, and both citizen and peafant were excufed from work alto- 
gether during the numerous holidays of the year. 

That the Anglo-Saxons were univerfally fond of play (plega) is proved 
by the frequent ufe of the word in a metaphorical fenfe. They even 
applied it to fighting and battle, which, in the language of the poets, 
were plega-gares (play of darts), eefc-plega (play of flfields), and kand- 

plega 



64. Hijiory of Domejiic Marnier s 

plega (play of hands).* In the gloflaries, plegere (a player), and plega- 
man (a playman), are ufed to reprefent the Roman gladiator; and 
plega-hus (a playhoufe), and plega-flow (a play-place), exprefs a theatre, 
or more probably an amphitheatre. Recent difcoveries have fhown that 
there was a theatre of considerable dimensions in the Roman town of 
Verulamium (near St. Alban's) 5 and old writers tell us there was one at 
the Silurian Ifca (Caerleon), though thefe buildings were doubtlefs of 
rare occurrence ; but every Roman town of any importance in the ifland 
had its amphitheatre outride the walls for gladiatorial and other exhi- 
bitions. The refult of modern refearches feems to prove that moft of the 
Roman towns continued to exift after the Saxon fettlement of the iiland, 
and we can have no doubt that the amphitheatres, at leaft for awhile, 
continued to be devoted to their original purpofes, although the perform- 
ances were modified in character. Some of them (like that at Rich- 
borough, in Kent, lately examined), were certainly furrounded by walls, 
while others probably were merely cut in the ground, and furrounded by 
a low embankment formed of the material thrown out. The firft of 
thefe, the Saxons would naturally call a play-houfe, while the other 
would receive the no lefs appropriate appellation of a play-flow, or place 
for playing. Among the illuftrations of the Anglo-Saxon manufcript of 
the Pfalms (MS. Harl., No. 603), to which we have fo often had occa- 
lion to refer, there is a very curious picture, evidently intended to repre- 
fent an amphitheatre outflde a town. It is copied in our cut No. 41. 
The rude Anglo-Saxon draughtfman has evidently intended to reprefent 
an embankment, occupied by the Spectators, around the fpot where the 
performances take place. The fpectator to the left is exprefling his 
approbation by clapping with his hands. The performances themfelves 
are lingular: we have a party of minftrels, one of them playing on the 
Roman double pipes, fo often reprefented in Anglo-Saxon manufcripts, 
while another is dancing to him, and the third is performing with a tame 
bear, which is at the moment of the reprefentation Simulating fleep. 

* It is curious that the modern English words play (/" , 'f- J )> and game (jramen), 
are both derived from the Anglo-Saxon, which perhaps shows that they represent 
sentiments we have derived from our Saxon forefathers. 

Games 



and Sentiments. 



65 



Games of this kind with animals, fucceeded no doubt among the Saxons 
to the Roman gladiatorial fights, but few have imagined that the popular 
Engliih exhibition of the dancing bear dated from fo remote a period. 
The manufcripts Ihow that the double pipe was in ufe among the Anglo- 
Saxons 3 with a little modification, and a bag of bellows to fupply the 




No. 4 1 . Games of the Amphitheatre, 



place of the human lungs, this inftrument was transformed into a bag- 
pipe. 

Not the leaft curious part of this picture is the (own in the back- 
ground, with its entrance gateway, and public buildings. The Anglo- 
Saxon draughtfmen were imperfectly acquainted with perfpe&ive, and 

k paid 



66 



Hijiory of "Domefiic Manners 



paid little attention to proportion in their reprefentations of towns and 
houfes, a circumftance. which is fully illuftrated in this picture. As the 
artift was unable from this circumftance to reprefent the buildings and 
Itreets of a town in their relative pofition, he put in a houfe to reprefent 
a multitude of houfes, and here he has hmilarly given one building within 
the walls to reprefent all the public buildings of the town. An exactly 
fimilar characteriftic will be obferved in our cut No. 42, taken from the 
fame manufcript, where one temple reprefents the town. Here again 




No. 42. A Tenon. 



we have a party of citizens outride the walls, amufing themfelves as well 
as they can 5 fome, for want of other employment, are laying themfelves 
down liftlerTly on the ground. 

The national fentiments and cuftoms of the Anglo-Saxons would, 
however, lead to the felecYion of other places for the fcenes of their 
games, and thus the Roman amphitheatres became neglefted. Each 
village had its arena — its play-place — where perfons of all ages' and fexes 

affembled 



and Sentiments. 67 



aifembled on their holidays to be players or lookers on 5 and this appears 
to have been uiually chofen near a fountain, or ibrae object hallowed by 
the popular creed, for cuftoms of this kind were generally aifociated with 
religious feelings which tended to confecrate and protect them. Thefe 
holiday games, which appear to have been very common among our 
Saxon forefathers, were the originals of our village wakes. Wandering 
minftrels, like thofe reprefented in our cut No. 41, repaired to them to 
exhibit their lkill, and were always welcome. The young men exerted 
themfelves in running, or leaping, or wreftling. Thefe games attracted 
merchants, and gradually became the centres of extenfive fairs. Such 
was the cafe with one of the raoft celebrated in England during the 
middle ages, that of Barnwell, near Cambridge. It was a large open place, 
between the town and the banks of the river, well fuited for fuch fefti- 
vities as thofe of which we are fpeaking. A fpring in the middle of this 
plain, we are told in the early chartulary of Barnwell Abbey, was called 
Beornawyl (the well of the youths), becaufe every year, on the eve of 
the Nativity of St. John the Baptift, the boys and youths of the neigh- 
bourhood affembled there, and, " after the manners of the Englifh, prac- 
tifed wreftling and other boyiih games, and mutually applauded one 
another with fongs and mufical inftruments ; whence, on account of the 
multitude of boys and girls who gathered together there, it grew a cuftom 
for a crowd of fellers and buyers to aflemble there on the fame day for 
the purpofe of commerce."* This is a curious and a rather rare allufion 
to an Anglo-Saxon wake. 

One of the great recreations of the Anglo-Saxons was hunting, for 
which the immenfe forefts, which then covered a great portion of this 
ifland, gave a wide fcope. The moft auftere and pious, as well as the 
moft warlike, of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, were pallionately attached 
to the pleafures of the chafe. According to the writer who has alfumed 



* Pueri et adolesce rites, . . . illic convenientes, more Anglorum luctamina et 
alia hulicra exercebant puerilia, et cantilenis et musicis instruments sibi invicem 
applaudebant, unde propter turbam puerorum et puellarum illic concurrentium, 
mos inolevit ut in eodem die illic conveniret negotiandi gratia turba vendentium et 
ementium. — MS. Harl. No. 3601, f'ol. 12, v°. 

the 



68 Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 

the name of After, the great Alfred was fo attached to this amufement, 
that he condefcended to teach his "falconers, hawkers, and dog-keepers" 
himfelf. His grandfon, king Ethelftan, as we learn from William of 
Malmefbury, exacted from the Welfh princes, among other articles of 
tribute, "as many dogs as he might choofe, which, from their fagacious 
fcent, could difcover the retreats and hiding-places of wild beafts ; and 
birds trained to make prey of others in the air." The fame writer tells 
us of the fainted Edward the Confeflbr, that "there was one earthly 
enjoyment in which he chiefly delighted, which was, hunting with fleet 
hounds, whofe opening in the woods he ufed with pleafure to encourage ; 
and again, with the pouncing of birds, whofe nature it is to prey on their 
kindred fpecies. In thefe exercifes, after hearing divine fervice in the 
morning, he employed himfelf whole days." It is evident from the 
ecclefiaftical laws, that it was difficult to reftrain even the clergy from 
this diveriion. One of the eccleliaftical canons paffed in the reign of 
king Edgar, enjoins " that no prieft be a hunter, or fowler, or player at 
tables, but let him play on his books, as becometh his calling." When 
the king hunted, it appears that men were employed to beat up the 
game, while others were placed at different avenues of the foreft to 
hinder the deer from taking a direction contrary to the willies of the 
hunter. Several provifions relating to the employment of men in this 
way, occur in the Domefday furvey. A contemporary writer of the Life 
of Dunftan gives the following defcription of the hunting of king Edmund 
the Elder, at Ceoddri (Chedder). "When they reached the foreft," he 
fays, " they took various directions along the woody avenues, and the 
varied noife of the horns, and the barking of the dogs, aroufed many 
flags. From thefe, the king with his pack of hounds chofe one for his 
own hunting, and purfued it long, through devious ways with great 
agility on his horfe, with the hounds following. In the vicinity of 
Ceoddri were feveral fleep and lofty precipices hanging over deep decli- 
vities. To one of thefe the flag came in his flight, and dallied headlong 
to his deftruction down the immense depth, all the dogs following and 
perifhing with him." The king with difficulty held in his horfe. 

The dogs (hundas), ufed for the chafe among the Anglo-Saxons, were 

valuable. 



and Sentiments. 



6 9 




No. 43. Anglo-Saxon 



valuable, and were bred with great care. Every noble or great land- 
owner had his hund-wealh, or dog-keeper. The accompanying cut 
(No. 43), taken from the Harleian MS. No. 603, reprefents a dog-keeper, 
with his couple of hounds — they 
feem to have hunted in couples. The 
Anglo-Saxon name for a hunting-dog 
was ren-hund, a dog of chafe, which 
is interpreted by greyhound ; and this 
appears, from the cut, to have been 
tlie favourite dog of our Saxon fore- 
fathers. It appears by an allufion 
given above, that the Saxons obtained 
hunting dogs from Wales 3 yet the 
antiquary will be at once ftruck with 
the total diffimilarity of the dogs pictured in the Anglo-Saxon manu- 
fcripts, from the Britifh dogs reprefented on the Romano-Britifh pottery. 
The dogs were ufed to find the game, and follow it by the fcent ; the 
hunters killed it with fpears, or with bows and arrows, or drove it into 
nets. In the Colloquy of Alfric, a hunter (hunta) of one of the royal 
forefts gives a curious account of his profeflion. When aiked how he 
praftifes his " craft," he replies, " I braid nets, and fet them in a con- 
venient place, and fet on my hounds, that they may purfue the beads of 
chafe, until they come unexpectedly to the nets, and fo become intangled 
in them, and I flay them in the nets." He is then alked if he cannot 
hunt without nets, to which he replies, " Yes, I purfue the wild animals 
with fwift hounds." He next enumerates the different kinds of game 
which the Saxon hunter ufually hunted — "I take harts, and boars, and 
deer, and roes, and fometimes hares." "Yefterday," he continues, 
"I took two harts and a boar, . . . the harts with nets, and [ flew the 
boar with my weapon." "How were you fo hardy as to flay a boar?" 
" My hounds drove him to me, and I, there facing him, fuddenly •ftruck 
him down." "You were very bold then." "A hunter mull not be 
timid, for various wild beads dwell in tin 1 woods." It would feem by 
this, that boar-hunting was not uncommon in the more extenfive forefts 

' of 



7° 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



of this iiland ; but Sharon Turner has made a Angular miftake, in fup- 
pofing, from a pidmre in the Anglo-Saxon calendar, that boar-hunting 
was the ordinary occupation of the month of September. The fcene 
which he has thus miftaken — or at leall, a portion of it — is given in our 
cut No. 44 (from the Cottonian MS. Claudius, C. viii.) j it reprefents 






No. 44. Swine-Herds. 



fwineherds driving their fwine into the forefts to feed upon acorns, which 
one of the herdfmen is making from the trees with his hand. The 
herdfmen were necefTarily armed to protecf the herds under their charge 
from robbers. 

The Anglo-Saxons, as we have feen, were no lefs attached to hawking 
than hunting. The fame Colloquy already quoted contains the following 
dialogue relating to the fowler (fugelere). To the queftion, " How doll 
thou catch birds?" he replies, "I catch them in many ways ; fome times 
with nets, fometimes with fnares, fometimes with bird-lime, fometimes 
with whiffling, fometimes with a hawk, fometimes with a trap." "Haft 
thou a hawk?" "I have." " Canft thou tame them?" "Yes, I can ; 
of what ufe would they be to me unlets I could tame them? " "Give 
me a hawk." "I will give one willingly in exchange for a fwift hound. 
What kind of hawk will you have, the greater or the leifer?" . . . 
"How feeder! thou thy hawks?" "They feed themfelves and me in 
winter, and in fpring I let them fly to the wood, and I catch young ones 
in autumn and tame them." A party of hawkers is represented in our 
cut No. 43, taken from the manufcript lali quoted, where it illuftrates 

the 



and Sentiments. 



the month of Oftober. The rude attempt at depicting a landfcape is 
intended to represent a river running from the diftant hills into a lake, 
and the hawkers are hunting cranes and other water-fowl. Prefents of 
hawks and falcons are not unfrequently mentioned in Anglo-Saxon 




No. 45. Anglo-Saxons Haivking. 

writers 3 and in a will, an Anglo-Saxon leaves to his natural lord " two 
hawks and all his flag-hounds." 

The Saxon youths were proud of their ikill in horfemanfhip. Bede 
relates an anecdote of the youthful days of Herebald, abbot of Tyne- 
mouth, when he attended upon bifhop 
John of Beverley, from Herebald's 
own words — "It happened one day," 
the latter faid, "that as we were 
travelling with him (the bifhop), we 
came into a plain and open road, well 
adapted for galloping our horfes. The 
young men that were with him, and 
particularly thofe of the laity, began 
to entreat the bifhop to give them 
leave to gallop, and make trial of the 

goodnefs of their horfes When 

they had feveral times galloped back- 
wards and forwards, the bifhop and I 

looking on, my wanton humour prevailed, and I could no longer refri 
but, though he forbade me, I ftruck in among them, ami began to 




No. 46. Slnglo-Saxons on a Journey. 



7 2 



Hi/lory of Dome flic Manners 




No. 47. An Anglo-Saxon Horfeman. 



at full fpeed." Horfes were ufed chiefly by the upper claffes of fociety 
in travelling. Two of a party of Saxon travellers are reprefented in our 
cut No. 46 (from MS. Cotton. Claudius, B. iv\). The lady, it will be 

obferved, rides fideways, as in 
modern times, and the illumi- 
nated manufcripts of different 
periods furnifh us with examples 
enough to fhow that fuch was 
always the practice 5 yet an old 
writer has afcribed the introduc- 
tion of fide-faddles into this 
country to Anne of Bohemia, 
the queen of Richard II., and 
the ftatement has been repeated 
by writers on coftume, who too often blindly compile from one another 
without examining carefully the original fources of information.* The 

next cut, No. 47 (taken from 
MS. Harl. No. 603), reprefents 
a horfeman with his arms, the 
fpear, and the round fhield, with 
its bofs, which reminds us of 
thofe frequently found in the 
early Anglo-Saxon graves. The 
horfe furniture is tolerably well 
defined in thefe figures. The 
forms of the fpur (fpura) and 
the ftirrup (called in Anglo- 
Saxon ftirap and hlypa) are very peculiar. Moft of the furniture of the 
horfe was then, as now, of leather, and was made by the fhoemaker 

* This erroneous statement is repeated by most of our writers on such subjects, 
and will be found in Mr. Planchd's " History of British Costume." Statements of 
this kind made by old writers are seldom to be depended upon ; people were led by 
political bias or personal partiality, to ascribe the introduction of customs that were 
odious, to persons who were unpopular, or whom they disliked, while the)' ascribed 
everything of a contrary character to persons who were beloved. 




No. 48. Anglo-Saxon Horfe Fittings. 



and Sentiments. 



73 



(fe fceowyrhta), who feems to have been the general manufacturer of 
articles in this material. Alfric's Colloquy enumerates among the articles 
made by the Ihoemaker, bridle-thongs (Iridel-thwancgas) , harneifes 
(gerceda), fpur-leathers (fpur-letkera), and halters (hcelfra). The form 
of the faddle is mown in the reprefentation of a horfe without a rider, 
given, from the manufcript laft quoted, in our cut No. 48. 

In the Anglo-Saxon church hiltories, we meet with frequent inftances 
of perfons, who were unable to walk from ficknefs or other caufe, being 
carried in carts or cars, but in molt cafes thefe feem to have been nothing 
but the common agricultural carts adapted temporarily to this ufage. A 
horfe-litter is oa one occafion ufed for the fame purpofe. It is certain, 




No. 49. A Chariot. 



however, that the Anglo-Saxons had chariots for travelling. The ufual 
names of all vehicles of this kind were wcegn or ween (from which, our 
waggon) and crat or crest (which appears to be the origin of the Englilli 
word cart). Thefe two terms appear to have been ufed lynonymoully, 
for the words of the 18th Pfalm, hi in curribus, are tranllated in one 
Anglo-Saxon verlion by on wcenum, and in another by in crcetum. The 
Anglo-Saxon manufcripts give us various reprcfentations of vehicles for 
travelling. The one reprefented in the cut No. 49 is taken from the 
Anglo-Saxon manufcript of Prudentius. It feems to have been a Inn- 
baric "improvement" upon the Roman I'lgn, and is not much unlike our 

l modern 



74 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 




modern market-carts. The whip ufed by the lady who is driving fo 
furioully, is of the fame form as that ufed by the horfewoman in our cut 
No. 46. The artift has not mown the wcegne-thixl, or fhaft. A four- 
wheeled carriage, of rather a lingular conftruclion, is found often repeated, 
with fome variations, in the illuminations of the manufcript of Alfric's 
tranflation of the Pentateuch. One of them is given in our cut No. 50. 

It is quite evident that a good deal 
of the minor detail of conftruclion 
has been omitted by the draughts- 
man. Anglo-Saxon gloffes give the 
word rad to reprefent the Latin 
quadriga. From the fame fource 
we learn that the compound word 
ivcen-fcer, waggon-going, was ufed 
to exprefs journeying in chariots. 

Riding in chariots mull have 
been rare among the Anglo-Saxons. 
Horfes were only ufed by the better 
claffes of fociety ; and we learn from Bede and other writers that pious 
ecclefiaftics, fuch as biihops Aidan, Ceadda, and Cuthbert, thought it 
more confiftent with the humility of their facred character to journey on 
foot. The pedeftrian carried either a fpear or a ftarf; the rider had 
almoft always a fpear. It is noted of Cuthbert, in Bede's life of that 
faint, that one day when he came to Mailros (Melrofe), and would enter 
the church to pray, having leaped from his horfe, he " gave the latter 
and his travelling fpear to the care of a fervant, for he had not yet 
refigned the drefs and habits of a layman." The weapon was, no doubt, 
neceflary for perfonal fafety. There is a very curious claufe in the 
Anglo-Saxon laws of king Alfred, relating to an accident ariling from 
the carrying the fpear, which we can hardly underftand, although to 
require a fpecial law it mull have been of frequent occurrence ; this law 
provides that " if a man have a fpear over his moulder, and any man 
flake him/elf upon it," the carrier of the fpear incurred fevere punilh- 
ment, "if the point be three fingers higher than the hindmolt. part of 

the 



No. 50. An Anglo-Saxon Carriage, 



and Sentiments. y$ 



the ihaft." He was not confidered blameable if he held the fpear quite 
horizontally. 

The traveller always wore a covering for his head, which, though of 
various fhapes, none of which refembled our modern hat, was characterifed 
by the general term of licet. He feems to have been further protected 
againft the inclemency of the weather by a cloak or mantle (mentel). 
One would be led to fuppofe that this outer garment was more varied in 
form and material than any other part of the drefs, from the great 
number of names which we find applied to it, fuch as lafing, hcecce, 
hceccla, or hacela, pcell, pylca, fcyccels, wcefels, tkc. The writings which 
remain throw no light upon the provifions made by travellers againft 
rain ; for the dictionary-makers who give fcur-fcead (fhower-ihade) as 
fignifying an umbrella, are certainly mistaken.* Yet that umbrellas 
were known to the Anglo-Saxons is proved beyond a doubt by a figure 
in the Harleian manufcript, No. 603, which is given in our cut No. 51. 
A fervant or attendant is holding an umbrella over 
the head of a man who appears to be covered at „ < ^/vT^\ 
the fame time with the cloak or mantle. 

Travelling to any diftance muft have been ren- 
dered more uncomfortable, efpecially when palling 
through wild diftricfs where there were no inns. 
The word inn is itfelf Saxon, and fignified a lodging, 
but it appears to have been more ufually applied to 
houfes of this kind in towns. A tavern was alfo 
called a gefl-hus or gejl-bur, a houfe or chamber 
for guefts, and cumena-hus, a houfe of comers. 

Gueft-houfes, like caravanferais in the Eaft, appear to have been eftablilhed 
in different parts of Saxon England, near the high roads, for the recep- 



* The word occurs in the reflections of" our first parents on their nakedness, in 
the poem attributed to Casdmon. Adam says that when the inclement weather 
arrives (cym& /iaglafcur—the hail shower will come) they had nothing before them 
to serve for a defence or shade against the storm — 




" Nys unc ivu/it bcfci 
to f cur Cceadc." 



\ 



j 6 Hifiory of Domejiic Manners 

tion of travellers. A traveller in Bede arrives at a kofpitium in the north 
of England, which was kept by a paterfamilias (or father of a family) 
and his houfehold. In the Northumbrian glofs on the Pfalms, printed 
by the Surtees Society, the Latin words of Pfalm liv., in hofpitiis eorum, 
are rendered by in gejl-hufum heara. This mows that Bede's hofpitium 
was really a gueft-houfe : thefe gueft-houfes were kept up in various 
parts of England until Norman times ; and Walter Mapes, in his treatife 
de Nugis Curialium, has preferved a flory relating to one of William the 
Conqueror's Saxon opponents, Edric the Wild, which tells how, returning 
from hunting in the foreft of Dean, and accompanied only with a page, 
he came to a large houfe, "like the drinking houfes of which the Englifh 
have one in every parifh, called in Englifh gild-houfes," perhaps an error 
for gueft-houfes (quales Anglici in Jingulis Jingulas habehant diocejibus 
bibitorias, ghildhus Anglice diSias). It feems not improbable, alfo, that 
the ruins of Roman villas and fmall ftations, which flood by the fides 
of roads, were often roughly repaired or modified, fo as to furnifh a 
temporary ihelter for travellers who carried provifions, &c, with them, 
and could therefore lodge themfelves without depending upon the aflift- 
ance of others. A fhelter of this kind — from its eonfifting of bare walls, 
a mere fhelter againft the inclemency of the ftorm — might be termed a 
ceald-hereberga (cold harbour), and this would account for the great 
number of places in different parts of England, which bear this name, 
and which are almoft always on Roman fites and near old roads. The 
explanation is fupported by the circumftance that the name is found 
among the Teutonic nations on the continent — the German Kalten-her- 
berg — borne by fome inns at the prefent day. 

The deficiency of fuch comforts for travellers in Anglo-Saxon times 
was compenfated by the extenfive practice of hofpitality, a virtue which 
was effectually inculcated by the cuftoms of the people as well as by the 
civil and ecclefiaftical laws. When a ftranger prefented himfelf at a 
Saxon door, and afked for board and lodging, the man who refufed them 
was looked upon with contempt by his countrymen. In the feventh 
century, as we learn from the Poenitentiale of archbithop Theodore, the 
refufal to give lodging to a ftranger (quicunque hofpitem non receperit in 

domum 



and Sentiments. yy 



domum fuam) was confidered worthy of eccleiiaftical cenfure. And in the 
Eccleiiaftical Inftitutes, drawn up at a later period, and printed in the 
collection of Anglo-Saxon laws, it is ftated that "It is alio very needful 
to every mafT-prieft, that he diligently exhort and teach his parilhioners 
that they be hofpitable, and not refufe their houfes to any wayfaring 
man, but do for his comfort, for love of God, what they then will or 
can 5 . . . . but let thofe who, for love of God, receive every ftranger, 
defire not any worldly reward." Bede defcribes as the firft aft of " the 
cuftom of hospitality" (trios hofpitalitatis) the waihing of the ftranger' s 
feet and hands ; they then offered him refreshment, and he was allowed 
to remain two nights without being questioned, after which period the 
hoft became anfwerable for his character. The eccleiiaftical laws limited 
the hofpitality to be fhown to a prieft to one night, becaufe if he remained 
longer it was a proof that he was neglecting his duties. 

Taverns of an ordinary description, where there was probably no 
accommodation for travellers, feem to have been common enough under 
the Anglo-Saxons ; and it mull be confelTed that there feems to be too 
much reafon for believing that people fpent a great deal of their leifure 
time in them ; even the clergy appear to have been tempted to frequent 
them. In the Eccleiiaftical Inftitutes, quoted above, maif-priefts are 
forbidden to eat or drink at ale-houfes (cet ceap-ealothelum). And it is 
ftated in the fame curious record that, " It is a very bad cuftom that many 
men practife, both on Sundays and alfo other mail-days 3 that is, that 
ftraightways at early morn they defire to hear mafs, and immediately 
after the mafs, from early morn the whole day over, in drunkennefs and 
feafting they minifter to their belly, not to God." 

Merchant travellers feem, in general, to have congregated together 
in parties or fmall caravans, both for companionfhip and as a meafure of 
mutual defence againft robbers. In fuch cafes they probably carried tents 
with them, and formed little encampments at night, like the pedlars and 
itinerant dealers in later times. Men who travelled alone were expoied 
to other dangers befides that of robbery 5 for a folitary wanderer was 
always looked upon with fufpicion, and he was in danger hirnfelf of b< ing 
taken for a thief. He was compelled, therefore, by his own interefi and 

bv 



7 8 



Hijlory of Domeftic Manners 



by the law of the land, to fhow that he had no whh to avoid obfervation ; 
one of the earlier Anglo-Saxon codes of laws, that of king Wihtraed, 
directed that " if a man come from afar, or a ftranger go out of the high 
way, and he then neither fhout nor blow a horn, he is to be accounted a 
thief, either to be flain, or to be redeemed." 

So prevalent, indeed, was theft and unfair dealing among our Anglo- 
Saxon forefathers, and fo much litigation and unjuft perfecution arofe 
from difputed claims to property which had been, or was pretended to 
have been, purchafed, that it was made illegal to buy or fell without 
witneffes. It would be eafy to multiply examples of robbery and plunder 
from Anglo-Saxon writers ; bat I will only ftate that, according to the 
Ely hiftory, fome merchants from Ireland, having come to Cambridge in 
the time of king Edgar, to offer their wares for fale, perhaps at the 




No. 52. Taking Toll. 



annual feftivities of the Beorna-wyl, mentioned above, a priejl of the 
place was guilty of Healing a part of their merchandife. We know but 
little of the trades and forms of commercial dealings of the Anglo-Saxons ; 
but we may take our leave of the period of which we have been hitherto 
treating, with a few figures relating to money matters, from the Anglo- 
Saxon manufcript of the Pfalms (MS. Harl. No. 603). The cut No. 52 
reprefents, apparently, a man in the market, or at the gates of a city, 

taking 



and Sentiments. 



79 



taking toll for merchandife. The fcales are for weighing, not the mer- 
chandife, but the money. The word pund, or pound, implies that the 
money was reckoned by weight ; and the word mancus, another term for 
a certain fum of money, is alfo confidered to have been a weight. Anglo- 
Saxon writings frequently fpeak of money as given by weight. Our cut 
No. 53 is a reprefentation of the merchant, or the toll-taker, feated 
before his account book, with his fcales hanging to the deik. In the firft 
of thefe cuts, a man holds the bag or purfe, in which the money received 
for toll or merchandife is deposited. The cut No. 54 reprefents the 





No. 53. A Money Taker. 



No. 54. Putting Treajure by. 



receiver pouring the money out of his bag into the cyjl, or cheft, in which 
it is to be locked up and kept in his treafury. It is hardly neeeflary to 
fay that there were no banking-houfes among the Anglo-Saxons. The 
cheft, or coffer, in which people kept their money and other valuables, 
appears to have formed part of the furniture of the chamber, as being 
the moft private apartment ; and it may be remarked that a rich man's 
wealth ufually contifted much more in jewels and valuable plate than in 
money. 

We cannot but remark how little change the manners and the fenti- 
ments of our Saxon forefathers underwent during the long period that we 
are in any way acquainted with them. During the reign of Edward the 
Confeffor, Norman faihions were introduced at court, but their influence 
on the nation at large appears to have been very trifling. Even after the 
Norman conqueft the Engliih manners and faihions retained their hold 
on the people, and at later periods they continually re-appear to aflerl 
their natural rights among the defendants of the Anglo-Saxons. 



Hijlory of ' Domeftic Manners 



CHAPTER V. 

THE EARLY NORMAN PERIOD. LUXURIOUSNESS OF THE NORMANS. 

ADVANCE IN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. THE KITCHEN AND THE 

HALL. PROVISIONS AND COOKERY. BEES. THE DAIRY. MEAL- 
TIMES AND DIVISIONS OF THE DAY. FURNITURE. THE FALDESTOL. 

CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS. 

A GREAT change was wrought in this country by the entrance of 
the Normans. From what we have feen, in the courfe of the 
preceding chapters, fociety feems for a long time to have been at a ftand- 
ftill among the Anglo-Saxons, as though it had progreffed as far as its 
own fimple vitality would carry it, and wanted fome new impulfe to 
move it onwards. By the entrance of the Normans, the Saxon ariftocracy 
was deftroyed ; but the lower and, in a great meafure^ the middle claffes 
were left untouched in their manners and cufloms, which they appear to 
have preferred for a confiderable length of time without any material 
change. The Norman hiftorians, who write with prejudice when they 
fpeak of the Saxons, defcribe their nobility as having become luxurious 
without refinement} and they tell us that the Normans introduced 
greater fobriety, accompanied with more oftentation. "The nobility," 
fays William of Malmefbury, " was given up to luxury and wantonnefs. 
.... Drinking in parties was an univerfal practice, in which occupation 
they pa{fed entire nights as well as days. They confumed their whole 
fubftance in mean and defpicable houfesj unlike the Normans and 
French, who, in noble and fplendid manfions, lived with frugality. The 
vices attendant on drunkennefs, which enervate the human mind, fol- 
lowed. ... In fine, the Englifh at that time (under king Harold) wore 
fhort garments, reaching to the mid-knee ; they had their hair cropped, 
their beards fhaven, their arms laden with golden bracelets, their lkin 

adorned 



and Sentiments. 



adorned with punctured defigns ; they were accuftomed to eat till they 
became furfeited, and to drink till they were fick. Thefe latter qualities 
they imparted to their conquerors ; whofe manners, in other refpects, 
they adopted." 

Whatever moderation the Normans may have brought with them, or 
however they may have been reftrained by the firil Anglo-Norman 
monarch, it difappeared entirely under his fon and fuccellbr : "when/' in 
the words of William of Malmefbury, "everything was ib changed, that 
there was no man rich except the money-changer, and no clerks but 
lawyers. . . . The courtiers then preyed upon the property of the country 
people, and confumed their fubftance, taking the very meat from their 
mouths. Then was there flowing hair and extravagant drefs ; and then 
was invented the faihion of ihoes with curved points ; then the model 
for young men was to rival women in delicacy of perfon, to mince their 
gait, to walk with loofe gefture, and half naked." This increaiing diffo- 
lutenefs of manners appears to have received no effectual check under 
the reign of the firft Henry ; in the twenty-ninth year of which, the 
writer juft quoted tells us that "a circumftance occurred in England, 
which may feem furpriling to our long-haired gallants, who, forgetting 
what they were born, transform themfelves into the faihion of females, 
by the length of their locks. A certain Englilh knight, who prided hiin- 
felf on the luxuriance of his treffes, being confcience-flung on the fubject, 
teemed to feel in a dream as though fome perfon ftrangled him with his 
ringlets. Awaking in a fright, he immediately cut off all his iuperfluous 
hair. The example fpread throughout England ; and, as recent puniih- 
ment is apt to affect the mind, almoft all the barons allowed their hair to 
be cropped in a proper manner, without reluctance. But this decency 
was not of long continuance ; for fcarcely had a year expired, before all 
thofe who thought themlelves courtly, relapfed into their former vice ; 
they vied with women in length of locks, and wherever thefe were 
wanting, put on falfe treffes ; forgetful, or rather ignorant, of the faying 
of the Apoflle, 'If a man nurture his hair, it is a fhame to him.' " Public 
and private manners were gradually running into the terrible law lelliu-ls 
of the reign of king Stephen. 

m William 



Hiftory of Domeflic Manners 



William of Malmefbury points out as one of the more remarkable 
circumftauces which diftinguifhed the Normans from the Saxons, the 
magnitude and folidity of their domeflic buildings. The Anglo-Saxons 
feem, indeed, to have preferred the old national prejudice of their race 
againft confining themfelves within ftone walls, while the Normans and 
Franks, who were more influenced by Roman traditions, had become 
great builders. We have fcarcely any information relative to the pro- 
gress of domeflic architecture under William the Conqueror, but the 
Norman chiefs feem from the firft to have built themfelves houfes of a 
much more fubflantial character than thofe which they found in exiftence. 
The refidence of the Conqueror, while engaged in his operations againft 
the infurgents in the ifle "of Ely, is imperfectly defcribed by the anony- 
mous author of the life of Hereward. It confifted of the hall, kitchen, 
and other buildings, which were inclofed by hedges and fofles (per fepes 
et foveas), and it had an interior and exterior court. Towards the end of 
the Conqueror's reign, and in that of his fon, were raifed thofe early 
Norman baronial caftles, the mafonry of which has withftood the ravages 
of fo many centuries. Under William and his fons, few ordinary man- 
fions and dwelling houfes feem to have been built fubftantially of flone ; 
I am not aware that there are any known remains of a flone manfion in 
this country older than the reign of Henry II. The miracles of St. Cuth- 
bert, related by Reginald of Durham, contain one or two allufions to the 
private houfes of the earlier part of the twelfth century. Thus a 
parifhioner of Kellow, near Durham, in the time of bifhop Walter Rufus 
(1133 — 1 140), is defcribed as pafling the evening drinking with the 
parilh priefl • returning home late, he was purfued by dogs, and reaching 
his own houfe in great terror, contrived to flint the door (oftiuni domus) 
upon them. He then went up to what, from the context, appears to 
have been the window of an upper floor or garret (ad fenejlram parietis), 
which he opened in order to look down with fafety on his perfecutors. 
He was fuddenly feized with madnefs, and his family being roufed, 
feized him, carried him down into the court (in area), and bound 
him to the feats (ad fedilia). The fame writer tells the flory of a blind 
woman in the city of Durham, who ufed to run her head againft 

the 



and Sentiments. 8 3 



the projecting windows of the houles (ad fenefirarum dependentia foris 

laque ;ria). 

We trace in the illuminations of the earlier Norman period the cufrom 
of placing the principal apartment at an elevation from the ground. 
The fimple plan of the ftone-built houfe of the latter part of this 
century, confided of a fquare room on the ground floor, often vaulted, 
and of one room above it, which was the principal apartment, and the 
ileeping-room. This was approached by a ftaircafe, fometimes external 
and fometimes internal, and it had a fire-place (cheminee), though this 
was not always the cafe in the room below. The lower room was -the 
hall, and the upper apartment was called a folar, or foller (folariiim), a 
word which has been fuppofed to be derived fromybZ, the fun, which was 
more felt in this upper room than in the lower, inafmuch as it was better 
lighted — it was the funny room. Yet, even here, the windows were 
fmall, and without glafs. We learn from Joscelin de Brakelonde that, 
in the year 1182, Samfon, abbot of Bury, while lodging in a grange, or 
manor-houfe, belonging to his abbey, narrowly efcaped being burnt with 
the houfe, becaufe the only door of the upper ftory in which he was 
lodged happened to be locked, and the windows were too narrow to 
admit of his paffing through them. In the early Englilh "Ancren 
Riewle," or rule of nuns, publifhed by the Camden Society, there are 
feveral allufions to the windows of the parlour, or private room, which 
fhow that they were not glazed, but ufually covered with a cloth, or blind, 
which allowed fufficient light to pafs, and that they had fhutters on hinges 
which clofed them entirely. In talking of the clanger of indulging the 
eyes, the writer of this treatife (p. 50) fays, " My dear fillers, love your 
windows" — they are called in the original text thurles, holes through 
the wall — " as little as you may, and let them be fmall, and the parlour's 
leaf! and narrower! 3 let the cloth in them be twofould, black cloth, the 
crofs white within and without." The writer goes on to moralise on the 
white crofs upon a black ground. In another part of the book (p. 97), 
the author fuppofes that men may come and feek to converfe with the 
nuns through the window, and goes on to fay, "If any man become fo 
mad and unreafonable that he put. forth his hand towards the window- 
cloth 



84 



Hiftory ofDomefiic Manners 



cloth (the t hurl-cloth), fhut the window quickly and leave him." Under 
the hall,, when it was raifed above the level of the ground, there was 
often another vaulted room, which was the cellar, and which feems to 
have been ufually entered from the infide of the building. In the 
accompanying cut (No. 55), taken from the celebrated tapeftry of Bayeux, 
are feen Harold and his companions caroufing in an apartment thus 
fituated, and approached by a ftaircafe from without. The object of this 
was, perhaps, partly to be more private, for the ordinary public hall at 
dinner times feems to have been invaded by troops of hungry hangers on, 
who ate up or carried away the provisions which were taken from the 




Caroujal. 



table, and became fo bold that they feem to have often feized or tried to 
feize the provifions from the cooks as they carried them to the table. 
William Rufus eftablifhed ufhers of the hall and kitchen, whofe duty it 
was to protect the guefts and the cooks from this rude rabble. Gai mar's 
defcription of that king's grand feaft at Weftminfter, contains fome curious 
alluvions to this practice. After telling us that three hundred ufhers 
(ujjers, i.e. huifjiers), or doorkeepers, were appointed to occupy the 
entrance paffages (us), who were to ftand with rods to protect the guefts 
as they mounted the fteps from the importunity of the garfons — 

Cil 



and Sentiments. 



85 



Cil cunduaicnt les barons 
Par les degrez, pur les gardens ,- 
Od les -verges k\*s mains teneient 
As barons vale fefaient, 
Ke ja gar con nefaprcmajl, 
Si a/con d'e/s ne /' comandaji — 

he adds, that thofe who carried the provifions and liquor to the table 




No. 56. The Norman Butler in hh Office. 

were alfo attended by thefe ufhers, that the "lecheurs" might not fnatcb 
from them, or fpoil, or break, the veflels in which they carried them : — 

Enfcmcnt tut rc-venaicnt par els 

Cil ki aportouent les mis 

De la quifine e des mejlers, 

E li bevercs e li mangers, 

Icil uffier les cunduaient, 

Pur la iJiffiele dunt fervaicnt , 

Ke lecheur ne les cfc/iecajl, 

Ne malmeiji, ne defrujjiijf . — Galmar, Estoric des Englfes, 1. r>985. 

In the cut from the Bayeux tapcihy, the f railing-room is approached 



86 



Uijiory of Domeftic Manners 



by what is evidently a flaircafe of ftone. In our cut No. 56, taken from 
a manufcript of the earlier half of the twelfth century in the Cottonian 
library (Nero, C. iv.), and illuftrating the ftory of the marriage feaft at 
Cana, the ftaircafe is apparently of wood, little better than a ladder, and 
the fervants who are carrying up the wine affift 
themfelves in mounting by means of a rope. It is 
a picnire which at the fame time exhibits feveral 
characteriftics of domemc life — the wine veifels, the 
cupboard in which they are kept, and the well in the 
court-yard, the latter being indicated by the tree. 
The butler, finding wine run fhort, fends the fervant 
to draw water from the well. It may be remarked 
that this appears to have been the common machinery 
of the draw-well among our forefathers in the 
middle ages — a rude lever, formed by the attach- 
^. ment of a heavy weight, perhaps of lead, at one 
- , end of the beam, which was fufficient to raife the 

No. 57. A Draw-Well 

other end, and thus draw up the bucket. It occurs 
in illuminations in manufcripts of various periods ; our example in cut 
No. 57 is taken from MS. Harl. No. 1257, of the fourteenth century. 





58. Norman Cooks and 



Whatever truth there may be in William of Malmetbury's account of 
the fobriety of the Normans, there can be no doubt that the kitchen and 

the 



and Sentiments. 



87 



the cooks formed with them a very important part of the houfehold. 
According to the Bayeux tapeftry, duke William brought with him from 
Normandy a complete kitchen eftabliihment, and a compartment of that 
intereffing monument, of which we here give a diminiihed copy, ihows 
that when he landed he found no difficulty in providing a dinner. On 
the left two cooks are boiling the meat — for this ltill was the general 
way of cooking it, as it was ufually eaten falted. Above them, on a 
ihelf, are fowls, and other forts of imall viands, fpitted ready for roafting. 
Another cook is engaged at a portable ilove, preparing fmall cakes, 
parties, &c, which he takes from the ftove with a Angularly formed fork 
to place them on the dim. Others are carrying to the table the roafted 
meats, on the fpits. It will be obferved that having no "board" with 
them to form a table, the Norman knights make ufe of their lhields 
inftead. 

The reader of the life of Hereward will remember the fcene in which 
the hero in diiguife is taken into king William's kitchen, to entertain the 
cooks. After dinner the wine and ale were diftributed freely, and the 
remit was a violent quarrel between the cooks and Hereward ; the former 
ufed the tridents and forks for weapons {cum tridentihus et funis), while 
he took the fpit from the fire (defoco haftile) as a ftill more formidable 




the Attendants serving at Table. 



weapon of defence. In the early Chanfon de Roland, Charlemagne is 
defcribed alfo carrying Lis cooks with him to the war, as William the 

Conqueror 



Conqueror is pictured in the Bayeux tapeftry, and they held fo im- 
portant a pofition in his houfehold, that, when one of his moft powerful 
barons, Guenelon, was accufed of treafon, Charlemagne is made to 
deliver him in cuftody to the charge of his cooks, who place him under 
the guard of a hundred of the "kitchen companions," and thefe treat 
him much in the fame way as king William's cooks fought to treat Here- 
ward, by cutting or plucking out his beard and whilkers. 

Li reis fait prendre le cunte Guenelun, 

Si V cumandat as cous de fa maifun, 

Tut li plus maiftre en apelct Befgun : 

'•Ben le me guarde,Ji cume tel felon, 

De ma maifnee ad fait e traifun.' 1 

Cil le receit,Ji met c. cumpaignons 

De la qidjine, des mieh e des pejurs ; 

Icil li peilent la barbe e les gernuns. — Chanson de Roland, p. 11. 

Alexander Neckam, in his Diclionarius (written in the latter part of 
the twelfth century), begins with the kitchen, as though he conftdered it 
as the moft important part of a manfion, and defcribes its furniture rather 
minutely. There is good reafon, however, for believing that the cooking 
was very commonly performed in the court of the houfe in the open air 
and perhaps it was intended to be reprefented fo in the fcene given above 
from the Bayeux tapeftry. The cooks are there delivering the food 
through a door into the hall. 

The Norman dinner-table, as fhown in the Bayeux tapeftry, differs 
not much from that of the Anglo-Saxons. A few difhes and bafins 
contain viands which are not eafy to be recognifed, except the fifh and 
the fowls. Moft of the fmaller articles feem to have been given by the 
cooks into the hands of the guefts from the fpits on which they had been 
roafted. Another dinner fcene is reprefented in our cut No. 59, taken 
from the Cottonian manufcript already mentioned (Nero, C. iv.). We 
fee again limilarly formed veffels to thofe ufed at table by the Anglo- 
Saxons. The bread is ftill made in round flat cakes, and is marked with 
a crofs, and with a flower in the middle. The guefts ufe no forks ; their 
knives are different and more varied in their forms than under the Anglo- 
Saxons 



and Sentiments. 



Saxons. Sometimes, indeed, the fhape of the knives is almofi: grotefque. 
The one reprefented below, in our cut No. 60, is taken from a group 
in the fame manufcript which furnilhed the preceding cut ; it is very 
Angularly notched at the point. 

We fee in thefe dinner fcenes that the Anglo-Normans ufed horns 
and cups for drinking, as the Anglo-Saxons did 3 but the ufe of the horn 




No. 59. An Angh-Sa. 



- Party. 




No. 60. A Knife 



is becoming rare, and the bowl-fhaped vefiels appear to have been now the 
ufual drinking cup. Among the wealthy thefe cups feem to have been 
made of glafs. Reginald of Durham defcribes one of 
the monks as bringing water for a fick man to drink 
in a glafs cup (vqfe vitreo), which was accidentally 
broken. In a fplendidly illuminated manufcript of 
the Pfalms, of the earlier half of the twelfth century, 
written by Eadwine, one of the monks of Canterbury, and which will 
afford much illuftration for this period,* we find a figure of a fervant 

* This valuable MS. is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
It is a very remarkable circumstance, which has not hitherto been noticed, that the 
illuminations are in general copies from those of the Harleian MS. No. 603, except 
that the costume and other circumstances are altered, so that we may take them as 
correct representatives of the manners of the Anglo-Normans. 

n giving 



9° 



Hi/lory of Domefttc Manners 



giving to drink, who holds one of the fame defcription of drinking cups 
which were fo popular at an earlier period among the Anglo-Saxons (fee our 
cut No. 61). He holds in the left hand the jug, which had now become 
the ufual veffel for carrying the liquor in any quantity. In cur cut 





No. 61. A Cup-bear 



No. 62. The Servant in the Cellar, 



No. 61, furnilhed by the fame manufcript as the preceding, the fervant 
is taking the jug of liquor from the barrel. Our next cut, No. 63, alfo 
taken from the Cambridge MS., reprefents feveral forms of veifels for the 
table. Some of thefe are new to us ; and they are on the whole more 
elegant than moft of the forms we meet 
with in common pictures. 

Wine appears to have been now more 
frequently ufed than among the Anglo- 
Saxons. Neckam, in the latter part of the 
twelfth century, has given us a rather play- 
ful enumeration of the qualities of good 
wine j "which he fays mould be as clear as 
the tears of a penitent, fo that a man may 
fee dift.in6t.ly to the bottom of his glafs ; its 
colour " ihould reprefent the greennefs of a 
buffalo's horn ; when drunk, it ihould defcend impetuously like thunder, 
fweet-tafted as an almond, creeping like a fquirrel, leaping like a roe- 
buck, throng like the building of a Ciflercian monaftery, glittering like a 
fpark of fire, fubtle as the logic of the fchools of Paris, delicate as fine 

filk: 




Anglo-Norman Pottery. 



and Sentiments. 9 1 



filk, and colder than cryftal." Yet Hill ale and mead continued to be 
the ufual drinks. The innumerable entries in Domefday Book ihow us 
how large a proportion of the productions of the country, in the reign of 
William the Conqueror, ftill confifted in honey, which was ufed chiefly 
for the manufacture of mead. The manu- 



fcript in Trinity College Library, gives us a A^jj?/ y \ %2-^Y. r ' 
p-roun of bee-hives (cut No. 6a). with nea- /J^rf/jI-LfJ 

it' 



group of bee-hives (cut No. 6a), with pea- ZJ^7rAl iJ - f ~- 
fants attending to them ; and is chiefly l>T~r//\ , 
curious for the extraordinary forms which 
the artift, evidently no naturalift, has given 
to the bees. 

We have hardly any information on the ^ Angh . Norman Bee . keefers , 
cookery during the period we are now 

defcribing. It is clear that numerous delicacies were ferved to the 
tables of the noble and wealthy, but their culinary receipts are not 
preferved. We read in William of Malmeibury, incidentally, that a 
great prince ate garlick with a goofe, from which we are led to fuppofe 
that the Normans were fond of highly-feafoned dimes. Neckam tells us 
that pork, roafted or broiled on red embers, required no other fauce than 
fait or garlick ; that a capon done in gobbets mould be well peppered ; 
that a goofe, roafted on the fpit, required a ftrong garlick-fauce, mixed 
with wine or "the green juice of grapes or crabs ;" that a hen, if boiled, 
fhould be cut up and feafoned with cummin, but, if roafted, it ihould 
be bafted with lard, and might be feafoned with garlick-fauce, though 
it would be more favoury with fimple fauce ; that fifh fhould be cooked 
in a fauce compofed of wine and water, and that they fhould afterwards 
be ferved with a fauce compofed of fage, parfley, colt, ditany, wild thyme, 
and garlick, with pepper and fait. We learn from other incidental allufions 
of contemporary, or nearly contemporary, writers, that bread, butter, and 
cheefe, were the ordinary food of the common people, probably with 
little elfe befides vegetables. It is interefting to remark that the three 
articles juft mentioned, have preferved their Anglo-Saxon names to the 
prefent times, while all kinds of meat, beef, veal, mutton, pork, even 
bacon, have retained only the names given to them by the Normans, 

which 



9 2 



Hifiory of Domejiic Manners 



which feerns to imply that nefh-meat was not in general ule for food 
among the lower clalfes of fociety. 

Bread feems almoft always to have been formed in cakes, like our 
buns, round in the earlier pictures, and in later ones (as in our cut No. 63), 
fhaped more fancifully. We fee it generally marked with a crofs, perhaps 
a fuperftitious precaution of the baker. The bread feems to have been 
in general made for the occanon, and eaten freih, perhaps warm. In one 
of Reginald of Durham's ftories, we are told of a prieft in the foreft of 
Arden, who, having nothing but a peck of corn left, and receiving a large 
number of vilitors on a facred feftival, gave it out to be baked to provide 
for them. The corn was immediately ground, perhaps with querns, and 
having been mixed with "dewy" water, in the ufual manner, was made 
into twelve loaves, and immediately placed in the hot oven.* Cheefe 
and butter feem alio to have been tolerably abundant. An illuminator 
of the Cambridge MS., given in our cut No. 65, reprefents a man 




No. 65. Anglo-Normans Milking and Churning. 

milking and another churning ; he who churns appears, to ufe a vulgar 
phrafe, to be " taking it at his eafe." The milking-pail, too, is rather 
extraordinary in its form. 

"We have not any diftincf account of the hours at which our Norman 



* " Quod, mola detritum, et aqua rorante perfusum, more usitato, in camino 
sestuante est depositum." Reg. Dunelm, p. 128. He owns they were so small that 
they hardly deserved the name of loaves. " Vix enim bis seni panes erant numero, 
qui tamen minores adeo quantitate fuerant quod indignum videretur panum eos 
censeri vocabulo." 



anceftors 



and Sentiments. 93 



ancestors took their meals, but they appear to have begun their day early. 
In the Carlovingian romances, everybody, not excepting the emperor and 
his court, riles at daybreak ; and in Huon de Bordeaux (p. 270), one of 
the chief heroes is accufed of lazinefs, becaufe he was in bed after the 
cock had crowed. In the romance of Doon de Mayence, the feudal lord 
of that great city and territory is introduced exhorting his fon to rife 
betimes, for, he fays, " he who fleeps too long in the morning, becomes 
thin and lazy, and lofes his day, if he does not amend himfelf." 

Qui trcp dort au maun, maigre dcvknt et las, 

Et fa journ/e en pert, J y nen amende pas — boon de Mayence, p. "G. 

In the fame romance, two of the heroes, Doon and Baudouin, alio 
rile with the fun, and drefs and wafh, and then fay their prayers 5 after 
which their attendant, Vaudri, " placed between them two a very large 
parly, on a white napkin, and brought them wine, and then laid to them 
in fair words, like a man of fenfe, ' Sirs, you mail eat, if it pleafe you j for 
eating early in the morning brings great health, and gives one greater 
courage and fpiritj and drink a little of this choice wine, which will 
make you ftrong and fierce in fight.' . . . And when Doon law it, he 
laughed, and began to eat and drink, and they breakfafted very pleafantly 
and peacefully." John of Bromyard, who wrote at a later period, has 
handed down a ftory of a man who defpaired of overcoming the difficulty 
he found in keeping the fafts, until he fucceeded in the following 
manner: at the hour of matins (three o'clock in the morning), when he 
was accuftomed to break his faft, and was greatly tempted to eat, he faid 
to himfelf, " I will faft until tierce (nine o'clock), for the love of God ;" 
and when tierce came, he faid he would fait unto fext (the hour of noon), 
and fo again he put off eating until none (three o'clock in the afternoon) ; 
and fo he gradually learnt to fall all day. We may perhaps conclude 
that, at the time when this ftory was made, nine o'clock was the ordinary 
hour of dinner. 

This laft-mentioned meal was certainly ferved early in the day, and 
was often followed by recreations in the open air. In the romance of 
Iluon de Bordeaux (p. 252), the Christian chiefs, after their dinner, go 

to 



94 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



to amufe themfelves on the fea-fhore. In Doon de Mayence (p. 245), 
they play at chefs and dice after dinner; and on another occafion, in the 
fame romance (p. 314), the barons, after their dinner, ring and dance 
together ; while in Fierabras (p. 185), Charlemagne and his court ride 
out on horfeback, and fet up a quintain, at which they jufted all day 
(tout le jour — which would imply that they began early), until vefpers 
(probably feven o'clock), when they returned into the palace to refrefh 
themfelves, and afterwards to go to bed. Supper was certainly ferved in 
the evening, and in thefe romances people are fpoken of as going to bed 
immediately after it. On one occafion, in Doon de Mayence (p. 303), 
Charlemagne's barons take no fupper, but, after their beds are prepared, 
they are ferved plentifully with fruits and wine. In the fame romance 
(p. 16), the guards of a came go out, becaufe it was a warm evening in 
fummer, and have their fupper laid out on a table in the field, where 
they remain long amufing themfelves. In Fierabras (p. 68), the barons 
take a hot bath after dinner. 

Of the articles of houfehold furniture during the period of which we 
are now writing, we cannot give many examples. We have every reafon 
to believe that they were anything but numerous. A board laid upon 
trefiels formed the ufual dining table, and 
an ordinary bench or form the feat. In 
the French Carlovingian romances, the 
earlier of which may be confidered as 
reprefenting fociety in the twelfth cen- 
tury, even princes and great barons lit 
ordinarily upon benches. Thus, in the 
romance of Huon de Bordeaux (pp. 33, 
36), Charlemagne invites the young 
chieftain, Huon, who had come to vifit 
him in his palace, to fit on the bench and 
drink his wine ; and in the fame romance 
(p. 263), when Huon was received in the abbey of St. Maurice, near 
Bordeaux, he and the abbot fit together on a bench. Chairs belonged 
to great people. Our cut No. 66, taken from the Trinity College Pfalter, 

reprefents 




No. 66. A Faldejiol. 



and Sentiments. 



95 



reprefents a chair of ftate, with its covering of drapery thrown over it. 
In fome infrances the culhion appears placed upon the drapery. This 
feat was the faldejhl, a word which has been transformed in modern 
French to fauteuil (translated in Englilh by elbow-chair). We read in 
the Chanfon de Roland of the faldejhl which was placed for princes, and 
of the covering of white " palie' 1 (a rich flurf) which was fpread over it. 
That of Charlemagne was of gold — 

Unfaldefloed i unt fait tut a" or mer : 

Lafet li reis qui duke France tient. — Chanfon de Roland, p. 0. 

The faldejhl of the Saracen king of Spain was covered with a " palie" of 
Alexandrian manufacture, — 

Un faldejloet out fuz r timbre d"un fin, 
Envohtpet Jut d^un palie Alexandrin ; 
La fut li reis ki tute Ejpaigne tint. — lb. p. 17- 

The infidel emir from Egypt, when he arrives in Spain, is feated in the 
midft of his hoft, on a faldeflol of ivory. 

Sur Verbe -verte getent un palie blanc, 
Un faldejloed i unt mis d^olifan ; 
Defuzf'ajiet li paien Baligant. — lb. p. 102. 

The faldeflol was not always made of fuch 
rich materials. In the romance of Huon 
de Bordeaux, Charlemagne is reprefented 
as fitting in a faldeflol made of elm. 

Karles monta ens el falais plcnitr ; 
II ejl ajis u faudejluef d^ormier. 

Iluon de Bordeaux, p. 2S6. 

The mouldings of the faldeflol in the 
cut No. 66 will be recognifed as exaclly the 
fame which are found on old furniture of a 
much more recent period, and which, in 
fa6t, are thofe which offer themfelves moll 
readily to ordinary turners. The fame 
ornamenl is feen on the chair reprefents 




No. 67. Two Chiefs Seated. 

in our cut No. 6j, tak< n 



9 6 



Hiflory of Domeftic Manners 



from the fame manufcript as the laft, in which two men are feated, in 
a very lingular manner. It was not uncommon, however, to have 
feats which held feveral perfons together, fuch as the one reprefented in 
an Anglo-Saxon illumination given in a former chapter (p. 31), and 
fuch as are itill to be feen in country public-houfes, where they have 
preferved the Anglo-Saxon name of fettle. One of thefe is reprefented 
in our cut No. 68. The perfons feated in it, in this cafe, are learned 
men, and the crofs above feems to mow that they are monks. One has 
a table-book, and two of the others have rolls of parchment, which are 
all evidently the fubjecf of anxious difcuffion. 

Chairs, and even ftools, were, as has been already obferved, by no 
means abundant in thefe early times, and we can eafily fuppofe that it 




No. 68. An Anglo-No. 



Settle. 



would be a difficult thing to accommodate numerous vifitors with feats. 
To remedy this, when houfes were built of Hone, it was ufual to make, 
in the public apartments, feats, like benches, in receffes in the wall, or 
projecting from it, which would accommodate a number of perfons at the 
fame time. We find fuch feats ufually in the cloifters of monafteries, as 
well as in the chapter-houfes of our cathedral churches. In the latter 
they generally run round the room, and are divided by arches into feats 
which were evidently intended to accommodate two perfons each, for the 

convenience 



and Sentiments. 



97 



convenience of converfation. This practice is illuftrated by our cut 
No. 69, taken, like the preceding one, from the Cambridge Manufcriptj 




No. 69. Seats in the Wall. 



it reprefents a group of feats of this kind, in which monks (apparently) 
are feated and converting two and two. 



Hiftory of "Domejiic Manners 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NORMAN HALL. SOCIAL SENTIMENTS UNDER THE ANGLO-NOR- 
MANS. DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS. CANDLES AND LANTERNS. FURNI- 
TURE. BEDS. OUT-OF-DOOR RECREATIONS. HUNTING. ARCHERY. 

CONVIVIAL INTERCOURSE AND HOSPITALITY. TRAVELLING. 

PUNISHMENTS. THE STOCKS. — A NORMAN SCHOOL. EDUCATION. 

ALEXANDER NECK AM has left us a fufficiently clear defcription 
- of the Norman hall. He fays that it had a veftibule or fcreen 
(veftihulum), and was entered through a porch (portions), and that it had 
a court, the Latin name of which (atrium) he pretends was derived from 
ater (black), " becaufe the kitchens ufed to be placed by the fide of the 
itreets, in order that the paffers-by might perceive the fmell of cooking." 
This explanation is fo myflericus, that we may fuppofe the paffage to be 
corrupt, but the coqidnce of which Neckam is fpeaking are evidently 
cook's fhops. In the interior of the hall, he fays, there were pofts (or 
columns) placed at regular diftances. The few examples of Norman 
halls which remain are divided internally by two rows of columns. 
Neckam enumerates the materials required in the conftruction of the 
hall, which feem to fhow that he is fpeaking of a timber building. A 
fine example of a timber hall, though of a later period, is, or was recently, 
Handing in the city of Gloucester, with its internal "potts" as here 
defcribed. There appears alfo to have been an inner court-yard, in which 
Neckam intimates that poultry were kept. The whole building, and 
the two court-yards, were no doubt furrounded by a wall, outride of 
which were the garden and orchard. The Normans appear to have had 
a tafte for gardens, which formed a very important adjunct to the maniion, 
and to the cattle, and are not unfrequently alluded to in mediaeval writers, 
even as far back as the twelfth century. Giraldus Cambrenfis, fpeaking 

of 



and Sentiments. 



99 



of the cattle of Manorbeer (his birthplace), near Pembroke, laid that it 
had under its walls, betides a fine fifh-pond, " a beautiful garden, inclofed 
on one fide by a vineyard, and on the other by a wood, remarkable for 
the projection of its rocks, and the height of its hazel-trees." In the 
twelfth century, vineyards were not uncommon in England. 

A new characteriftic was introduced into the Norman houfes, and 
especially into the caftles, the maflive walls of which allowed chimney- 
flues to be carried up in their thicknefs. The piled-up fire in the middle 
of the hall was Hill retained, but in the more private apartments, and 
even fometimes in the hall itfelf, the fire was made on a hearth beneath 
a fire-place built againft the fide wall of the 
room. An illumination, in the Cottonian MS. 
Nero, C. iv., which we have already had occa- 
fion to refer to more than once, reprefents a 
man warming himfelf at a fireplace of this 
defcription. It appears, from a comparifon of 
this (No. 70) with fimilar figures of a later 
period, that it was a ufual practice to fit at the 
fire bare-legged and bare-foot, with the object 
of imbibing the heat without the interme- 
diation of fhoes or ftockings. 
in Worcefter Cathedral, reprefented in our 
cut No. 71 which belongs to a later date (the Ar „ 

1 ' ° v J\o. 70. A Man warming himjclf. 

latter part of the fourteenth century), and the 

fcene of which is evidently intimated to be in the winter feafon, a man, 
while occupied in attending to the culinary operations, has taken off his 
fhoes in order to warm himfelf in this manner. The winter provifions, two 
flitches of bacon, are fufpended to the left of him, and on the other fide 
the faithful dog feems to enjoy the fire equally with his matter. From a 
flory related by Reginald of Durham, it appears to have been a practice 
among the ladies to warm themfelves by fitting over hot water, as well 
as by the fire.* In fome of the illuminations of mediaeval manufcripts, 




* Quod si super aquas sen ad ignem se calefactura sedisset. — Reg. Dunelm., c. 124. 

ladies 



IOO 



Hiftory of "Dome ft ic Manners 



ladies are reprefented as warming themfelves, even in the prefence of the 
other fex, in a very free and eafy manner. The fuel chiefly employed 
was no doubt ftill wood, but the remark of Giraldus Cambreniis that the 
name of Colefliulle (in Flintshire) fignified the hill of coals (carlonum 
collis) implies that mineral coals were then known. 

It is hardly neceflary to remark that, in the change in the mode of 
living which had fuddenly taken place in this country, a form of fociety 
had alfo been introduced abruptly which differed entirely from that of the 
Anglo-Saxons. On the continent, throughout the now disjointed empire 
which had once been ruled by Charlemagne, there had arifen, during the 




No. 71. Indications of Cold Weather. 



tenth century, amid frightful mifgovernment and the favage invafions of the 
northmen, a new form of fociety, which received the name of feudalifm, 
becaufe each landholder held, either direcf from the crown or from a 
Superior baron, by a feudal tenure, or fee ( feodum , feudum) , which obliged 
him to military fervice. Each baron had fovereignty over all thofe who 
held under him, and, in turn, acknowledged the nominal fovereignty of a 
fuperior baron or of the crown, which the latter practically was only fome- 
times able to enforce. One great principle of this fyftem was the right of 
private warfare ; and, as not only did the great barons obtain land in feudal 

tenure 



and Sentbnents. 101 



tenure in different countries under different independent princes, but the 
leffer holders of lub-fees obtained fuch tenures under more than one 
fuperior lord, and as thefe, when they quarrelled with one fuperior, made 
war upon him, and threw themfelves upon the protection of another who 
felt bound to defend his feudatory, war became the normal ftate of feudal 
fociety, and peace and tranquillity were the exceptions. One effecl: of 
feudalifm was to divide the population of the country into two diftinct 
claffes — the landholders, or fighting-men, who alone were free, and the 
agricultural population, who had no political rights whatever, and were 
little better than flaves attached to the land. The towns alone, by 
their own innate force, preferved their independence, but in France the 
influence of feudalifm extended even over them, and the combined 
hoftility of the crown and the ariftocracy finally overthrew their municipal 
independence. Feudalifm was brought into England by the Normans, 
but it was never eftablifhed here fo completely or fo fully as on the 
continent. The towns here never loft their independence, but they 
fided fometimes with the ariftocracy, and fometimes with the crown, 
until finally they allifted greatly in the overthrow of feudalifm itfelf. 
Yet the whole territory of England was now diftributed in great fees, 
and in fub-feesj amid which a few of the old Saxon gentry retained 
their pofition, and many of the Norman intruders married the. Saxon 
heireffes, in order, as they thought, to ftrengthen the right of conqueft ; 
but the mafs of the agricultural population were confounded under the 
one comprehensive name of villains (villani), and reduced to a much 
more wretched condition than under the Anglo-Saxon conftitution. The 
light in which the villain was regarded in the twelfth century in England 
is well illuftrated in a ftory told in the Englilh " Rule of Nuns," 
printed by the Camden Society. A knight, who had cruelly plundered 
his poor villains, was complimented by one of his flatterers, who laid, 
"Ah, fir! truly thou doft well. For men ought always to pluck and 
pillage the churl, who is like the willow — it fprouteth out the better for 
being often cropped." 

The power and wealth of the great Norman baron were immenfe, 
and before; him, during a great part of the period of which we are now 

[peaking, 



102 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

fpeaking, the law of the land was a mere nominal institution. He was 
in general proud, very tyrannical, and often barbaroufly cruel. A type 
of the feudal baron in his worft point of view is prefented to us in the 
character of the celebrated Robert de Belefme, who fucceeded his father 
Roger de Montgomery in the earldom of Shropfhire, and of whom 
Henry of Huntingdon, who lived in his time, tells us, "He was a very 
Pluto, Megsera, Cerberus, or anything that you can conceive frill more 
horrible. He preferred the Slaughter of his captives to their ranfom. 
He tore out the eyes of his own children, when in fport they hid their 
faces under his cloak. He impaled perfons of both fexes on flakes. To 
butcher men in the moft horrible manner was to him an agreeable feafl." 
Of a contemporary feudal chieftain in France, the fame writer tells us, 
" When any one, by fraud or force, fell into his hands, the captive might 
truly fay, ' The pains of hell compaiTed me round.' Homicide was his 
paffion and his glory. He imprifoned his own countefs, an unheard-of 
outrage ; and, cruel and lewd at once, while he fubjected her to fetters 
and torture by day, to extort money, he forced her to cohabit with him 
by night, in order to mock her. Each night his brutal followers dragged 
her from her prifon to his bed, each morning they carried her from 
his chamber back to her prifon. Amicably addreffing any one who 
approached him, he would plunge a fword into his fide, laughing the 
while 5 and for this purpofe he carried his fword naked under his cloak 
more frequently than fheathed. Men feared him, bowed down to him, 
and worfhipped him." Women of rank are met with in the hiftories of 
this period who equalled thefe barons in violence and cruelty ; and the 
relations between the fexes were marked by little delicacy or courtefy. 
William the Conqueror beat his wife even before they were married. 
The ariftocratic clafs in general lived a life of idlenefs, which would have 
been infupportable without fome fcenes of extraordinary excitement, and 
they not only indulged eagerly in hunting, but they continually fallied 
forth in parties to plunder. They looked upon the mercantile clafs 
efpecially as objects of homhty ; and, as they could feldom overcome them 
in their towns, they waylaid them on the public roads, deprived them 
of their goods and money, and carried them to their caftles, where they 

tortured 



and Sentiments. i o 3 



tortured them in order to force them to pay heavy ranlbms. The young 
nobles ibmetimes joined together to plunder a fair or market. On the 
other hand, men who could not claim the protection of ariftocratic blood 
for their evil deeds, eftabliihed themfelves under that of the wild forefte, 
and ilTued forth no lei's eagerly to plunder the country, and to perpetrate 
every defcription of outrage on the perfons of its inhabitants, of whatever 
clafs they might be, who fell into their power. The purity of woman- 
hood was no longer prized, where it was liable to be outraged with 
impunity ; and immorality fpread widely through all claffes and ranks 
of fociety. The declamations of the ecclefiaftics and the fatires of the 
moralifts of the twelfth century may give highly-painted pictures, but 
they lead us to the conclufion that the manners and fentiments of the 
female lex during the Norman period were very corrupt. 

Neverthelefs, feudalifm did boaft of certain dignified and generous 
principles, and there were noble examples of both fexes, who ihine forth 
more brightly through the general prevalence of vice and of felriihnefs 
and injuftice. It was in the walls of the feudal cattle, amid the familiar 
intercourfe which the want of amufement caufed among its inmates, that 
the principle, or practice, arofe, which we in modern times call gallantry, 
and which, though at firft it only led to refinement in the forms of focial 
manners, ended in producing refinement of fentiments. It was among the 
feudal ariftocracy, too, that originated the fentiment we term chivalry, 
which has varied confiderably in its meaning at different periods, and 
which, in its beft fenfe, exifled more in romance than in reality. After the 
poffeflion of perfonal ftrength and courage, the quality which the feudal 
baron admired molt, was what was termed generality, but which meant 
lavifh expenditure and extravagance ; it was the contrail between the 
baron, who fpent his money, and the burgher or merchant, who gained 
it, and laid it up in his coffers. " Noblemen and gentlemen," fays the 
" Rule of Nuns," already quoted, "do not carry packs, nor go about truffed 
with bundles, nor with purfes; it belongs to beggars to bear bag on back, 
and to burgeffes to bear purfes." In fact, it was the principle of the 
feudal ariftocracy to extort their gains from all who laboured and trafficked, 
in order to fquander them on thofe who lived in idlenefs, violence, and 

\ ice. 



1 04 Htjiory of Domejiic Manners 

vice. Under fuch circumflances, a new clafs had arifen which was 
peculiar to feudal fociety, who lived entirely upon the extravagance of 
the ariftocracy, and who had fo completely abandoned every fentiment of 
morality or fhame, that, in return for the protection of the nobles, they 
were the ready inftruments of any bafe work. They were called, among 
various other names, ribalds (ribaldi) and letchers (leccatores) ; the origin 
of the firft of thefe words is not known, but the latter is equivalent to 
difh-lickers, and did not convey the fenfe now given to the word, but 
was applied to them on account of their gluttony. We have already feen 
how, in the crowd which attended the feafts of the princes and nobles, 
the letchers (lecheurs) were not content with waiting for what was fent 
away from table, but feized upon the dimes as they were carried from the 
kitchen to the hall, and how it was found neceffary to make a new office, 
that of ufliers of the hall, to reprefs the diforder. " In thofe great courts," 
fays the author of the "Rule of Nans," " they are called letchers who have 
fo loft fhame, that they are afliamed of nothing, but feek how they may 
work the greateft villany." This clafs fpread through fociety like a great 
fore, and from the terms ufed in fpeaking of them we derive a great part 
of the opprobrious words which mil exift in the Engliih language. 

The early metrical romances of the Carlovingian cycle give us an 
infight into what were confidered as the praife worthy features in the 
character of the feudal knight. In Doon of Mayence, for example, when 
(p. 74) the aged count Guy fends his young fon Doon into the world, he 
counfels him thus : " You fhall always aik queftions of good men, and 
you fhall never put your truft in a ftranger. Every day, fair fon, you 
fhall hear the holy mafs, and give to the poor whenever you have money, 
for God will repay you double. Be liberal in gifts to all ; for the more 
you give, the more honour you will acquire, and the richer you will be ; 
for a gentleman who is too fparing will lofe all in the end, and die in 
wretchednefs and difgrace ; but give without promifing wherever you 
can. Salute all people when you meet them, and if you owe anything, 
pay it willingly, but if you cannot pay, aik for a refpite. When you 
come to the hoftelry, don't ftand fquabbling, but enter glad and joyoufly. 
When you enter the houfe, cough very loud, for there may be fomething 

doing 



a?id Sentiments. 105 



doing which you ought not to fee, and it will cod: you nothing to give 
this notice of your approach, while thofe who happen to be there will 
love you the better for it. Do not quarrel with your neighbour, and 
avoid dilputing with him before other people ; for if he know anything 
againft you, he will let it out, and you will have the fhame of it. When 
you are at court, play at tables, and if you have any good points of 
behaviour (depors), fhow them ; you will be the more prized, and gain 
the more advantage. Never make a noife or joke in church ; this is 
only done by unbelievers, whom God loves not. Honour all the clergy, 
and fpeak fairly to them, but leave them as little of your goods as you 
can ; the more they get from you, the mere you will be laughed at ; you 
will never profit by enriching them. And if you wifh to fave your 
honour undiminished, meddle with nothing you do not underfiand, and 
don't pretend to be a proficient in what you have never learnt. And if 
you have a valet, take care not to feat him at the table by you, or take 
him to bed with you ; for the more honour you do to a low fellow, the 
more will he defpife you. If you fhould know anything that you 
would wifh to conceal, tell it by no means to your wife, if you have one ; 
for if you let her know it, you will repent of it the firft time you difpleafe 
her." The eftimate of the female character at this period, even when 
given in the romances of chivalry, is by no means flattering. 

With thefe counfels of a father, we may compare thofe of a mother 
to her fon. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (p. 18), when the 
youthful hero leaves his home to repair to the court of Charlemagne, the 
duchefs addreffes her fon as follows: "My child," ihe laid, "you are 
going to be a courtier; I require you, for God's love, have nothing to do 
with a treacherous flatterer; make the acquaintance of wife men. Attend 
regularly at the fervice of holy church, and fhow honour and love to 
the clergy. Give your goods willingly to the poor; be courteous, and 
fpend freely, and you will be the more loved and cherifhed." On the 
whole, higher fentiments are placed in the mouth of the lady than in 
that of the baron. We muft, however, return to the outward, and there- 
fore more apparent, characteriftics of focial life during the Norman 
period. 

p The 



io6 Hiftory of Domeftic Manners 

The in-door amufements of the ordinary claffes of fociety appear not 
to have undergone much change during the earlier Norman period, but 
the higher claffes lived more fplendidly and more riotoufly ; and, as far 
as we can judge, they feem to have been coarfer in manners and feelings. 
The writer of the life of Hereward has left us a curious picture of 
Norman revelry. When the Saxon hero returned to Brunne, to the 
home of his fathers, and found that it had been taken poffemon of by a 
Norman intruder, he fecretly took his lodging in the cottage of a villager 
clofe by. In the night he was roufed from his pillow by loud founds of 
minflrelfy, accompanied with boiflerous indications of merriment, which 
iffued from his father's hall, and he was told that the new occupants 
were at their evening cups. He proceeded to the hall, and entered the 
doorftead unobferved, from whence he obtained a view of the interior of 
the hall. The new lord of Brunne was furrounded by his knights, who 
were fcattered about helplefs from the extent of their potations, and 
reclining in the laps of their women. In the midfl of them flood a 
jougleur, or minftrel, alternately ringing and exciting their mirth with 
coarfe and brutal jefts. It is a firft rough fketch of a part of mediaeval 
manners, which we fhall find more fully developed at a fomewhat later 
period. The brutality of manners exhibited in the fcene which I have 
but imperfectly defcribed, and which is confirmed by the ftatements of 
writers of the following century, foon degenerated into heartlefs ferocity, 
and when we reach the period of the civil wars of Stephen's reign, we find 
the amufements of the hall varied with the torture of captive enemies. 

In his more private hours of relaxation, the Norman knight ammed 
himfelf with games of fkill or hazard. Among thefe, the game of chefs 
became now very popular, and many of the rudely carved cheffmen of 
the twelfth century have been found in our ifland, chiefly in the north, 
where they appear to have been manufactured. They are ufually made 
of the tufk of the walrus, the native ivory of Weftern Europe, which was 
known popularly as whale's bone. The whalebone of the middle ages 
is always defcribed as white, and it was a common object of companion 
among the early Englifh poets, who, when they would defcribe the 
delicate complexion of a lady, ufually faid that fhe was " white as whale's 

bone." 



and Sentiments. 107 



bone." Thefe, as well as dice, which were now in common ufe, were 
alio made of horn and bone, and the manufa£mre of fuch articles feems 
to have been a very extenfive one. Even in the little town of Kirkcud- 
bright, on the Scottifh border, there was, in the middle of the twelfth 
century, a maker of combs, draughtfmen, chelfmen, dice, fpigots, and 
other fuch articles, of bone and horn, and Hag's horn appears to have 
been a favourite material.* 

In the Chanfon de Roland, Charlemagne and his knights are repre- 
fented, after the capture of Cordova from the Saracens, as fitting in a 
ihady garden, fome of them playing at tables, and others at chefs. 

Sur palies blancs fiedent cil ccvalers, 
As tables juent pur els cjbaneier, 
E as efchecs li plus fai-ve e l\ -veill, 
E efcretni£'cnt cil bacheler leger. 

Chefs, as the higher game, is here defcribed as the amufement of the 
chiefs, the old, and the wife ; the knights play at tables, or draughts ; 
but the young bachelors are admitted to neither of thefe games, they 
amufe themfelves with bodily exercifes — fham fights. 

Although fuch games were not unufually played by day, they were 
more efpecially the amufements which employed the long evenings of 
winter, and candles appear at this time to have been more generally ufed 
than at a former period. They ftill continued to be fixed on candlefticks, 
and not in them, and fpikes appear fometimes to have been attached to 
tables or other articles of furniture, to hold them. Thus, in one of the 
pretended miracles told by Reginald of Durham, a facriftan, occupied in 
committing the facred veftments to the fafety of a cupboard, fixed his 
candle on a ftick or fpike of wood on one fide (candelam...in qffere 
collaterali confixit), and forgetting to take away the candle, locked the 
cupboard door, and only difcovered his negligence when he found the 
whole cupboard in flames. Another eccleiiaftic, reading in bed, fixed his 



* Quidam de 


villula in confinio posita, 


artificiosus m 


nister, 


sub c 


iurno tempore 


studiosus advenit 


CUJ 


us negotiations opus 


in pectinibus 


conformand 


s, tabulatis et 


scaccariis, tali*, s 


pini 


:eris, et ceteris tali 


bus, de 


corm 


III 111 V 


el sol 


diori ossuum 


materia procreant 


is e 


studium irtfentionis 


effulsit.- 


-Reg 


Dun« 


Im, c. 


SS. 

candle 



io8 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



candle on the top of one of the fides (fpondilia) of his bed. Another 
individual bought two fmall candles (candelas modicas) for an oholns, but 
the value of the coin thus named is not very exactly known. The candle 
appears to have been ufually placed at night in or on the chimney, or 
fire-place, with which the chamber was now furnifhed. In 
Fierabras (p. 93), a thief, having obtained admifhon in the 
night to the chamber of the princefs Floripas, takes a candle 
from the chimney, and lights it at the fire, from which we 
J — J . 1 111 .1, are led to fuppofe that it was ufual to keep the fire alight 
all night. 

IJnelement et toft -vient a la ceminee, 
Une chandelle a prinfe, aufu Va alume'e. 

On another occafion (p. 67), a fire is lit in the chimney of 

A Norman Floripas's chamber, and afterwards a table is laid there, and 

dinner ferved. Lanterns were now alfo in general ufe. The 

earlieft figure of a lantern that I remember to have met with in an 

Englifh manufcript is one furnifhed by MS. Cotton. Nero, C. iv., which 





No. 73. Occupations of the Ladies. 

is reprefented in our cut (No. 72). It differs but little from the fame 
article as ufed in modern times ; the fides are probably of horn, with a 
fmall door through which to put the candle, and the domed cover is 
pierced with holes for the egrefs of the fmoke. 

We 



and Sentiments. 



109 



We begin now to be a little better acquainted with the domeftic 
occupations of the ladies, but we ihall be able to treat more fully of 
thefe in a fubfequent chapter. Not the leaft ufual of thefe was weaving, 
an art which appears to have been pracfifed very extenfively by the 
female portion of the larger houfeholds. The manufcript Pfalter in 
Trinity College, Cambridge, furniihes us with the very curious group of 
female weavers given in our cut No. 73. It explains itfelf, as much, at 
leaft, as it can eafily be explained, and I will only obferve that the fciffors 
here employed are of the form common to the Romans, to the Saxons, 
and to the earlier Normans 3 they are the Saxon fcear, and this name, 
as well as the form, is ftill preferved in that of the "fhears" of the 
modern clothiers. Mufic was alfo a favourite occupation, and the number 




No. 74. A Norman Organ. 



of mufical inftruments appears to be confiderably increafed. Some of 
thefe feem to have been elaborately conftrucled. The manufcript lalt 
mentioned furniihes us with the accompanying figure of a large organ, "I 
laborious though rather clumfy workmanlhip. 

■ In the dwellings of the nobles and gentry, there was more ihmv of fur- 
niture 



I IO 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



niture under the Normans than under the Saxons. Cupboards [armaria, 
armoires) were more numerous, and were filled with veffels of earthen- 
ware, wood, or metal, as well as with other things. Chefls and coffers 
were adorned with elaborate carving, and were fometimes inlaid with 
metal, and even with enamel. The fmaller ones were made of ivory, 
or bone, carved with hiftorical fubjecfs. Rich ornamentation generally 
began with ecclefiaftics, and we find by the fubjecfs carved upon them 
that the earlier ivory coffers or catkets belonged to churchmen. When 
they were made for lords and ladies, they were ufually ornamented with 
fubjecfs from romance, or from the current literature of the day. The 




No. 75. A Norman Bed. 



beds, alfo, were more ornamental, and affumed novel forms. Our cut 
No. 75, taken from MS. Cotton. Nero, C. iv., differs little from fome 
of the Anglo-Saxon figures of beds. But the tefter bed, or bed with a 
roof at the head, and hangings, was now introduced. In Reginald of 
Durham, we are told of a facriftan who was accuftomed to fit in his bed 
and read at night. One night, having fixed his candle upon one of the 
fides of the bed (fupra fpondilia ledhuli fuprema), he fell accidentally 
afleep. The fire communicated itfelf from the candle to the bed, which, 
being filled with ftraw, was foon enveloped in flame, and this communi- 
cated 



and Sentiments. 1 1 1 



cated itfelf with no lefs rapidity to the combination of arches and planks 
of which the frame of the bed was compofed (ligna materies archarum et 
aJJ'erum copiofa). Above the bed was a wooden frame (qucedam tabularia 
ftratura), on which he was accuftomed to pile the curtains, dorfals, and 
other fimilar furniture of the church. Neckam, in the latter part of the 
twelfth century, defcribes the chamber as having its walls covered with a 
curtain, or tapeftry. Befides the bed, he fays, there mould be a chair, 
and at the foot of the bed a bench. On the bed was placed a quilt 
(culcitra) of feathers (plumalis), to which is joined a pillow ; and this is 
covered with a pointed (punctata) or ftripecl (Jiragulata) quilt, and a 
culhion is placed upon this, on which to lay the head. Then came 
fheets (lintheamina, linceuls), made fometimes of rich filks, but more 
commonly of linen, and thefe were covered with a coverlet made of 
green fay, or of cloth made of the hair of the badger, cat, beaver, or 
fable. On one fide of the chamber was a perche, or pole, projecting from 
the wall, for the falcons, and in another place a fimilar perch for hanging 
articles of drefs. It was not unufual to have only one chamber in the 
houfe, in which there were, or could be made, feveral beds, fo that all 
the company, even if of different fexes, flept in the fame room. Servants 
and perfons of lower degree might fleep unceremoniouily in the hall. 
In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (p. 270), Huon, his wife, and his 
brother, when lodged in a great abbey, fleep in three different beds in 
the fame room, no doubt in the gueff-houfe. Among the Anglo-Nor- 
mans, the chamber feems to have frequently, if not generally, occupied 
an upper floor, fo that it was approached by flairs. 

The out-of-doors amufements of this period appear in general to have 
been rude and boifterous. The girls and women feem to have been 
paflionately fond of the dance, which was their common amufemcnt at 
all public feftivals. The young men applied themfelves to gymnaftic 
cxercifes, fuch as wreftling, and running, and boxing; and they had bull- 
baitings, and fometimes bear-baitings. On Roman fites, the ancient 
amphitheatres feem Hill to have been ufed for fuch exhibitions; and the 
Roman amphitheatre at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, was known by the title 
of "The Bull-ring" down to a very late period. The higher ranks 

among 



1 1 2 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

among the Normans were extraordinarily addicted to the chace, to fecure 
which they adopted fevere meafures for preferving the woods and the 
beafts which inhabited them. Every reader of Engliih hiftory knows the 
ftory of the New Foreft, and of the fate which there befell the great 
patron of hunting — William Rufus. The Saxon Chronicle, in fumming 
up the character of William the Conqueror, tells us that he "made large 
forefts for the deer, and enacted laws therewith, fo that whoever killed a 
hart or a hind, fhould be blinded. As he forbade killing the deer, fo alfo 
the boars j and he loved the tall flags as if he were their father. He 
alfo appointed concerning the hares, that they fhould go free." The 
paflion of the ariftocracy for hunting was a bane to the rural population 
in more ways than one. Not only did they ride over the cultivated 
lands, and deflroy the crops, but wherever they came they lived at free 
quarter on the unfortunate population, ill-treating the men, and even 
outraging the females, at will. John of Salifbury complains bitterly of 
the cruelty with which the country-people were treated, if they happened 
to be fhort of provisions when the hunters came to their houfes. " If 
one of thefe hunters come acrofs your land," he fays, "immediately and 
humbly lay before him everything you have in your houfe, and go and 
buy of your neighbours whatever you are deficient of, or you may be 
plundered and thrown into prifon for your difrefpect to your betters." 
The weapons generally ufed in hunting the flag were bows and arrows. 
It was a barbed arrow which pierced the breaft of the fecond William, 
when he was hunting the flag in the wilds of the New Forefl. Our 
cut (No. 76), from the Trinity College Pfalter, reprefents a horfeman 
hunting the flag. The noble animal is cloiely followed by a brace of 
hounds, and juft as he is turning up a hill, the huntfman aims an arrow 
at him. As far as we can gather from the few authorities in which it is 
alluded to, the Saxon peafantry were not unpractifed hands at the bow. 
We find them enjoying the character of good archers very foon after 
the Norman conqueft, under circumftances which feem to preclude the 
notion that they derived their knowledge of this arm from the invaders. 
In the miracles of St. Bega, printed by Mr. G. C. Tomlinfon, in 1842, 
there is a ftory which fhows the fkill of the young men of Cumberland in 

archery 



and Sentiments. 



archery very foon after the entrance of the Normans ; and the original 
writer, who lived perhaps not much after the middle of the twelfth 
century, allures us that the Hibernian Scots, and the men of Galloway, 
who were the ufual enemies of the men of Cumberland, ''feared thefe 
fort of arms more than any others, and called an arrow, proverbially, a 
flying devil." We learn from this and other accounts, that the arrows of 
this period were barbed and fledged, or furnilhed with feathers. It may 
be obferved, in fupport of the affertion that the ufe of bows and arrows 




No. 76. A Stag- Aunt. 



was derived from the Saxons, that the names bow (l-oga) and arrow 
(arewe), by which they have always been known, are taken directly from 
their language 5 whereas, if the practice of archery had been introduced 
by the Normans, it is probable we mould have called them arcs and 
fletches, 

After the entrance of the Normans, we begin to find more frequent 
alluhons to the convivial meetings of the middle and lower orders in 
ordinary inns or private houfes. Thus, we have a ftory in Reginald of 
Durham, of a party of the parifhioners of Kellow, who went to a drinking 
party at the prieft's, and palled in this manner a great portion of the 
night.* This occurred in the time of bifhop Geoffrey Rufus, between 
1133 and 1 140. A youth and his monaftic teacher are reprefented on 
another occafion as going to a tavern, and palling the whole of the night 



* Quklam Walteius .... qui ad domum sacerdotis villulre prredictne cum 
hospitibus potaturus accessit. Cum igitur noctis spacium etfluxisser, Sec— Reg. 
Dunelm, c. 17. 



1 1 4 Hiftory of Domeflic Manners 

in drinking, till one of them becomes inebriated, and cannot be prevailed 
on to return home. Another of Reginald's ftories defcribes a party in a 
private houfe, fitting and drinking round the fire. We are obliged thus 
to collecf together flight and often trivial allufions to the manners of a 
period during which we have fo few detailed defcriptions. Hofpitality 
was at this time exercifed among all claffes freely and liberally; the 
mifery of the age made people meet together with . more kindlinefs. 
The monafteries had their open gueft-houfes, and the unknown traveller 
was feldom refuted a place at the table of the yeoman. In towns, moil; 
of the burgeffes or citizens were in the habit of receiving flrangers as 
private lodgers, in addition to the accommodation afforded in the regular 
hofpitia or taverns. Travelling, indeed, was more ufual under the 
Normans than it had been under the Saxons, for it was facilitated by the 
more extenfive ufe of horfes. But this alfo brought ferious evils upon 
the country ; for troops of followers and rude retainers who attended on 
the proud and tyrannical arifrocracy, were in the habit of taking up their 
lodgings at will and difcretion, and living upon the unfortunate houfe- 
holders without pay. It had been, even during the Anglo-Saxon period, 
a matter of pride and oftentation among men of rank — efpecially the 
king's officers — to travel about accompanied with a great multitude of 
followers,* and this practice certainly did not diminifh under the Nor- 
mans. But, whether in great numbers or in fmall, the travellers of the 
twelfth century fought the means of amufing themfelves during their 
journey, and thefe amufements refembled fome of thofe which were 
employed at the dinner-table — they told ftories, or repeated epifodes 
from romances, or fung, and they fometimes had minfirels to accompany 
them. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, Huon, on his journey from 
his native city to Paris, afks his brother Gerard to fing, to enliven them on 
the road, — 

Cante, biaufrere, pour nos cors esjoir. — Huon de Bordeaux, p. 18. 

* Lantfridus, in his collection of the miracles of St. Swithun, MS. Reg. 15, 
C. vii., fol. 41, v°., tells us how — "quidam consul regis, in caducis praeporens 
rebus, cum ingenti comitatu, sicut mos est Anglo-Saxonum, properater equitabat 
ad quendam vicum in quo grandis apparatus ad necessarios convivandi usus erat 
illi opipare constructus," &c. 

But 



and Sentiments. 



"5 



But Gerard declines, becaufe a difagreeable dream of the preceding night 
has made his heart forrowful. When we turn from romance to fober 
hiitory, we learn from Giraldus Cambrenfis how Gilbert de Clare, 
journeying from England to his great poffemons in Cardiganshire, was 
preceded by a minftrel and a finging-man, who played and fang alter- 
nately, and how the noife they made gave notice of his approach to the 
Welfhmen who lay in ambufh to kill him. 

A group of Norman travellers is here given from the Cottonian MS. 
Nero, C. iv. It is intended to reprefent Jofeph and the Virgin Mary 
travelling into Egypt. The Virgin on the afs, or mule, is another example 




No. 77. Norman Travellers. 



of the continued practice among ladies of riding fideways. Mules appear 
to have been the animals on which ladies ufually rode at this period. 
In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (p. 60), when Huon, immediately 
after his marriage, proceeds on his journey homeward, he mounts his 
young duchefs on a mule 5 fo alfo, in the romance of Gaufrey (p. 62), the 
princefs Flordefpine is mounted on "a rich mule," the trappings of which 
are rather minutely defcribed. "The faddle was of ivory, inlet with 
gold ; on the bridle there was a gem of fuch power that it gave light in 
the darknefs of night, and whoever bore it was prefcrved from all difeafe ; 

the 



n6 



Hijiory of Domeflic Manners 



the faddle-cloth (famine) was wonderfully made ; flie had thirty little 
bells behind the cnirie, which., when the mule ambled, made fo great a 
melody that harp or viol were worth nothing in companion." The 
Anglo-Norman hiftorian, Ordericus Vitalis, has preferved a legend of a / 
vifion of purgatory, in which the prieff. who is 
fuppofed to have feen it defcribes, among other 
fuffering perfons, " a crowd of women who feemed 
to him to be innumerable. They were mounted 
on horfeback, riding in female fafhion, with 

women's faddles In this company the 

prieft recognifed feveral noble ladies, and beheld 
the palfreys and mules, with the women's litters, 
of others who were full alive." The Trinity 
College Pfalter furnifhes us with the two figures 
of cars given in our cut No. 783 but they are fo 
fanciful in fhape, that we can hardly help con- 
cluding they muft have been mere rude and grotefque attempts at 
imitating claffical forms. 

The manufcript lafr. mentioned affords us two other curious illuflrations 
of the manners of the earlier half of the twelfth century. The firfl of 




No. 78. Ca 




No. 79. The Stocks. 

thefe (No. 79) reprefents two men in the flocks, one held by one leg only, 
the other by both. The men to the left are hooting and infulting them. 
The fecond, reprefented in our cut No. 80, is the interior of a Norman 
fchool. We give only a portion of the original, where the bench, on 
which the fcholars are feated, forms a complete circle. The two writers, 

the 



and Sentiments. 



117 



the teacher, who feems to be lecturing viva voce, and his feat and delk, 
are all worthy of notice. We have very little information on the forms 
and methods of teaching in fchools at this period, but fchools feem to 
have been numerous in all parts of the country. We have more than 
one allufion to them in the naive ftories of Reginald of Durham. From 
one of thefe we learn that a fchool, according to a cuftom " now common 
enough," was kept in the church of No rh am, on the Tweed, the parifh 
prieft being the teacher. One of the boys, named Aldene, had incurred 




No. 80. A Norman School. 



the danger of correction, to efcape which he took the key of the church 
door, which appears to have been in his cuftody, and threw it into a deep 
pool in the river Tweed, then called Padduwel, and now Pedwel or 
Peddle, a place well known as a fifhing ftation. He hoped by this means 
to efcape further fcholaftic difcipline, from the circumftance that the 
fcholars would be fliut out by the impollibility of opening the church 
door. Accordingly, when the time of vefpers came, and the prieft 
arrived, the key of the door was milling, and the boy declared thai ln- 
did 



Hi /lory of "Domeftic Manners 



did not know where it was. The lock was too ftrong and ponderous to 
be broken or forced, and, after a vain effort to open the door, the 
evening was allowed to pafs without divine fervice. The ftory goes on 
to fay, that in the night St. Cuthbert appeared to the prieft, and inquired 
wherefore he had neglected his fervice. On hearing the explanation, the 
faint ordered him to go next morning to the fifliing ftation at Padduwel, 
and buy the firft net of fifh that was drawn out of the river. The prieft 
obeyed, and in the net was a falmon of extraordinary magnitude, in the 
throat of which was found the loft key of Norham church. 

Among the ariftocracy of the land, the education of the boy took 
what was confidered at that time a very practical turn — he was inftrucled 
in behaviour, in manly exercifes and the ufe of arms, in carving at table — 
then looked upon as a moft important accomplifhment among gentlemen 
— and in fome other branches of learning which we fliould hardly appre- 
ciate at prefent ; but fchool learning was no mediaeval gentleman's 
accomplishment, and was, in that light, quite an exception, unlefs perhaps 
to a certain degree among the ladies. In the hiftorical romances of the 
middle ages, a prince or a baron is fometimes able to read, but it is the 
refult of accidental circumftances. Thus, in the romance of the "Mort 
de Garin," when the emprefs of the Franks writes fecret news from 
Paris to duke Garin, the head of the family of the Loherains, it is 
remarked, as an unufual circumftance, that the latter was able to read, 
and that he could thus communicate the fecret information of the emprefs 
to his friends without the afliftance of a fcholar or fecretary, which was a 
great advantage, as it prevented one fource of danger of the betrayal of 
the correfpondence. " Garin the Loherain," fays the narrator, " was 
acquainted with letters, for in his infancy he was put to fchool until he 
had learned both Roman (French) and Latin." 

De letres Jot li Loherens Gar ins ; 
Car enfenfancefu a ejcole mis, 
Tant que il Jot et Roman et Latin. — Mort de Garin, p. 105. 

Education of this kind was beftowed more generally on the hourgeoi/ie 
— on the middle and even the lower claifes ; and to thefe fchool- 

education 



and Sentiments. 1 1 9 



education was much more generally accellible than we are accuftomed to 
imagine. From Anglo-Saxon times, indeed, every pariih church had 
been a public fchool. The Ecclefiaftical Inftitutes (p. 475, in the folio 
edition of the Laws, by Thorpe) directs that " MaiT-priefts ought always 
to have at their houfes a fchool of difciples ; and if any one defire to 
commit his little ones (lytlingas) to them for inftruction, they ought very 
gladly to receive them, and kindly teach them." It is added that "they 
ought not, however, for that inftru&ion, to defire anything from their 
relatives, except what they fhall be willing to do for them of their own 
accord." In the Ecclefiaftical Canons, publifhed under king Edgar, 
there is an enactment which would lead us to fuppofe that the clergy 
performed their fcholaftic duties with fome zeal, and that priefts were 
in the habit of feducing their fcholars from each other, for this enact- 
ment (p. 3g6) enjoins " that no prieft receive another's fcholar without 
leave of him whom he previously followed." This fyftem of teaching was 
kept up during at leaft feveral generations after the Norman conqueft. 



2o Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 



CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY ENGLISH HOUSES. THEIR GENERAL FORM AND DISTRIBUTION. 

AFTER the middle of the twelfth century, we begin to be better 
acquainted with the domeftic manners of our forefathers, and 
from that period to the end of the fourteenth century the change was 
very gradual, and in many refpefts they remained nearly the fame. In 
the middle claries, efpecially in the towns, there had been a gradual 
fufion of Norman and Saxon manners, while the Norman fafhions and 
the Norman language prevailed in the higher claifes, and the manners of 
the lower claifes remained, probably, nearly the fame as before the 
Conqueft. 

We now obtain a more perfect notion of the houfes of all claifes, not 
only from more frequent and exact defcriptions, but from exifting remains. 
The principal part of the building was ftill the hall, or, according to the 
Norman word, the salle, but its old Saxon character feems to have been 
fo univerfally acknowledged, that the firft or Saxon name prevailed over 
the other. The name now ufually given to the whole dwelling-houfe 
was the Norman word manoir or manor, and we find this applied popu- 
larly to the houfes of all claffes, excepting only the cottages of labouring 
people. In houfes of the twelfth century, the hall, ftanding on the 
ground floor, and open to the roof, ftill formed the principal feature of 
the building. The chamber generally adjoined to it at one end, and at 
the other was ufually a ftable (croiche). The whole building ftood within 
a fmall enclofure, confifting of a yard or court in front, called in Norman 
aire (area), and a garden, which was furrounded ufually with a hedge 
and ditch. - In front, the houfe had ufually one door, which was the 
main entrance into the hall. From this latter apartment there was a 

door 



and Sentiments. 1 2 



door into the chamber at one end, and one into the croiche or ftable at 
the other end, and a back door into the garden. The chamber had alio 
frequently a door which opened alfo into the garden ; the ftable, as a 
matter of courfe, would have a large door or outlet into the yard. The 
chief windows were thofe of the hall. Thefe, in common houfes, appear 
to have been merely openings, which might be clofed with wooden 
mutters ; and in other parts of the building they were nothing but holes 
(pertuis) ; there appears to have been ufually one of thefe holes in the 
partition wall between the chamber and the hall, and another between 
the hall and the ftable. There was alfo an outer window, or pertuis, to 
the chamber. 

In the popular French and Anglo-Norman fabliaux, or tales in verfe, 
which belong moftly to the thirteenth century, we meet with many 
incidents illuftrating this diftribution of the apartments of the houfe, which 
no doubt continued eflentially the fame during that and the following 
century. Thus in a fabliau publilhed by M. Jubinal, an old woman of 
mean condition in life, dame Auberee, is defcribed as viiiting a burgher's 
wife, who, with characteriftic vanity, takes her into the chamber adjoining 
(en une chambre ilueques pres), to fhow her her handlbme bed. When 
the lady afterwards takes refuge with dame Auberee, flie alio ihows her 
out of the hall into a chamber clofe adjoining (en une chambre iluec de 
jqfle). In a fabliau entitled Du prejire crucifie, published by Moon, a 
man returning home at night, fees what is going on in the hall through 
a pertuis, or hole made through the wall for a window, before he opens 
the door (par un pertuis les a veuz). In another fabliau publilhed in the 
larger collection of Barbazan, a lady in her chamber fees what is palling 
in the hall par un pertuis. In the fabliau of Le povre clerc (or fcholar), 
the clerc, having aiked for a night's lodging at the houfe of a miller 
during the miller's abfence, is driven away by the wife, who expects a 
vilit from her lover the prieft, and is unwilling to have an intruder. 
The clerc, as he is going away, meets the miller, who, angry at the 
inhofpitable conduct of his dame, takes him back to the houfe. The 
prieft in the meantime had arrived, and is fitting in the hull with the 
good wife, who, hearing a knock at the door, makes her lover hide him- 

K Tell' 



122 



Hijlory of Domeftic Manners 



felf in the ftable (croiche). From the ftable the priefl watches the 
company in the hall through a window (fenejire), which is evidently 
only another name for the pertuis. In one fabliau the gallant comes 
through the court or garden, and is let into the hall by the back door; 
in another a woman is introduced into the chamber by a back door, or, 
as it is called in the text, a falfe door (par unfax huis), while the hall is 
occupied by company. 

The arrangements of an ordinary houfe in the country are illuftrated 
in the fabliau De Barat et de Hairnet, printed in the collection of Bar- 
bazan. Two thieves undertake to rob a third of " a bacon," which he 
(Travers) had hung on the beam or rafter of his houfe, or hall :— 

Travers Pavoit a une hart 
Au tref de fa meson fendu. 

The thieves make a hole in the wall, by which one enters without 
waking Travers or his wife, although they were fleeping with the door 
of their chamber open. The bacon is thus ftolen and carried away. 
Travers, roufed by the noife of their departure, rifes from his bed, follows 
the thieves, and ultimately recaptures his bacon. He refolves now to 
cook the bacon, and eat fome of it, and for this purpofe a fire is made, 
and a cauldron full of water hung over it. This appears to be performed 
in the middle of the hall. The thieves return, and, approaching the 
door, one of them looked through the pertuis, and faw the bacon 
boiling : — 

Bar as mifl fan oeil au pertuis, 
Et voit que la chaudiere bout. 

The thieves then climb the roof, uncover a fmall fpace at the top filently, 
and attempt to draw up the bacon with a hook. 

From the unlkilfulnefs of the mediaeval artifts in reprefenting details 
where any knowledge of perfpecf ive was required, we have not fo much 
information as might be expected from the illuminated manufcripts 
relating to the arrangements of houfes. But a fine illuminated copy of 
the romances of the San Graal and the Round Table, executed at the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, and now preferred in the Britiih 

Mufeum 



and Sentiments. 



123 



Mufeum (MS. Addit. Nos. 10,292—10,294), furnifhes us with one or 
two rather interefting illufixations of this fubje&. The romances them- 
felves were compoied in Anglo-Norman, in the latter half of the twelfth 
century. The firfl cut which we lhall felecf from this manufcript is a 




No. 81. An Anglo- Norman Houfe 



complete view of a houfe ; it belongs to a chapter entitled Enjl que 
Lancelot ront les fers aVunc fenejire, et Ji entre dedens pour ge/ir avoec la 
royne. The queen has informed Lancelot that the head of her bed lies 
near the window of her chamber, and that he may come by night to the 
window, which is defended by an iron grating, to talk with her, and fhe 
tells him that the wall of the adjacent hall is in one part weak and 
dilapidated enough to allow of his obtaining an entrance through it 5 but 
Lancelot prefers breaking open the grating in order to enter directly into 
the chamber, to palling through the hall. The grating of the chamber 
window appears to have been common in the houfes of the rich and 
noble ; in the records of the thirteenth century, the grating of the 
chamber windows of the queen is often mentioned. The window behind 
Lancelot in our cut is that of the hall, and is diftinguifhed by architectural 
ornamentation. The ornamental hinges of the door, with the lock and 
the knocker, are alio curious. Our next cut (No. 82), taken from this fame 

manufcripl , 



124 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



manufcript, reprefents part of the houfe of a knight, whofe wife has an 
intrigue with one of the heroes of thefe romances, king Claudas. The 
knight lay in wait to take the king, as he was 
in the lady's chamber at night, but the king, 
^//AV^V-TW'V De ' n o ma de aware of his danger, efcaped by 
aj/v/^\j >f the chamber- window, while the knight ex- 
pected to catch him by entering at the hall 
door. The juxtapofition of hall and chamber 
is here mown very plainly. In another chapter 
of the fame romances, the king takes Lancelot 
into a chamber to talk with him apart, while 
his knights wait for them in the hall ; this 
is picrorially reprefented in an illumination 
copied in the accompanying cut (No. 83), which mows exactly the rela- 
tive pofition of the hall and chamber. The door here is probably 
intended for that which led from the hall into the chamber. 




No. 82. The Hall and Chamber. 




No. 83. The Knights In ivaiting 



We fee from continual allufions that an ordinary houfe, even among 
men of wealth, had ufually only one chamber, which ferved as his 
fleeping-room, and as the fpecial apartment of the female portion of the 

houfehold 



and Sentiments. 



125 



houfehold — the lady and her maids, while the hall was employed indis- 
criminately for cooking, eating and drinking, receiving vifitors, and a 
variety of other purpofes, and at night it was ufed as a common fleeping- 
room. Thefe arrangements, and the conftrucfion of the houfe, varied 
according to the circumftances of the locality and the rank of the 
occupiers. Among the rich, a ftable did not form part of the houfe, but 
its lite was often occupied by the kitchen, which was almoft always 
placed clofe to the hall. Among the higher claffes other chambers were 
built, adjacent to the chief chamber, or to the hall, though in larger 
manfions they fometimes occupied a tower or feparate building adjacent. 
The form, however, which the manor-houfe 
generally took was a fimple oblong fquare. 
A feal of the thirteenth century, attached 
to a deed by which, in June, 1272, William 
Moraunt grants to Peter Picard an acre of 
land in the parifh of Otteford in Kent, fur- 
nilhes us with a reprefentation of William 
Moraunt's manor-houfe. It is a fimple fquare 
building, with a high-pitched roof, as appears 
always to have been the cafe in the early 
Englifh houfes, and a chimney. The hall 
door, it will be obferved, opens outwardly, as 
is the cafe in the preceding cuts, which was the ancient Roman manner 
of opening of the outer door of the houfe; it may be added that it was 
the cuftom to leave the hall door or huis (oftium) always open by day, as 
a fign of hofpitality. It will alfo be obferved that there is a curious 
coincidence in the form of chimney with the cuts from the illuminated 
manufcript. We muft not overlook another circumftance in thefe 
delineations, — the pofition of the chimney, which is ufually over the 
chamber, and not over the hall. Fireplaces in the wall and chimneys 
were firft introduced in the chamber. 

As the grouping together of feveral apartments on the ground-floor 
rendered the whole building lefs compact and lefs defenhble, the practice 
foon rofe, efpecially in the better manoirs, of making apartments above. 

This 




84. Seal of JV. Moraunt. 



126 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

This upper apartment was called a foler (folarium, a word fuppofed to 
be derived from fol, the fun, as being, by its pofition, nearer to that 
luminary, or as receiving more light from it). It was at firft, and in the 
leffer manfions, but a fmall apartment raifed above the chamber, and 
approached by a flight of fteps outfide, though (but more rarely) the 
ftaircafe was fometimes internal. In our firft cut from the Mufeum manu- 
fcript (No. 81), there is a foler over the chamber, to which the approach 
appears to be from the infide. In the early metrical tales the foler, and 
its exterior ftaircafe, are often alluded to. Thus, in the fabliau D ' Efiourmi, 
in Barbazan, a burgher and his wife deceive three monks of a neigh- 
bouring abbey who make love to the lady ; fhe conceals her hufband 
in the foler above, to which he afcends by a flight of fteps : — 

Tejiea, vous montere% la Jus 
En eel Jolier tout co'iement. 

The monk, before he enters the houfe, paffes through the court (cortil), 
in which there is a lheepcot (hercil), or perhaps a ftable. The hufband 
from the foler above looks through a lattice or grate and fees all that 
paffes in the hall — 

Par la tre'iUie le porlingne. 

The ftairs feem, therefore, to have been outfide the hall, with a latticed 
window looking into it from the top. The monk appears to have 
entered the hall by the back door, and the chamber is adjacent to the 
hall (as in houfes which had no foler), on the fide oppofite to that on 
which were the ftairs. When another monk comes, the hufband hides 
himfelf under the ftairs (fouz le degre). The bodies of the monks (who 
are killed by the hufband) are carried out parmi unefauffe poferne which 
leads into the fields (aus charts). In the fabliau of La Sainereffe, a 
woman who performs the operation of bleeding comes to the houfe of a 
burgher, and finds the man and his wife feated on a bench in the yard 
before the hall — 

En mi Paire de fa mefen. 

The lady fays fhe wants bleeding, and takes her upftairs into the foler : — 

Montc% la Jus en eel Jolier, 
II rnejluet de vojlre mcftier. 

They 



and Sentiments. 1 27 



They enter, and cloie the door. The apartment on the foler, although 
there W3s a bed in it, is not called a chamber, but a room or laloon 
(perrin):— 

Si fe defcendent del perrln t 
Contrcval les degrez enjin 
Vmdrent errant en la ma: Jon. 

The expreffion that they came down the flairs, and into the houfe, fhows 
that the ftaircafe was outfide. 

In another fabliau, De la lorgoife d'Orliens, a burgher comes to his 
wife in the difguife of her gallant, and the lady, difcovering the fraud, 
locks him up in the foler, pretending he is to wait there till the houie- 
hold is in bed — 

jfe -vous metrai prive'ement 
En un folier dont 'fat la clef. 

She then goes to meet her ami, and they come from the garden (vergier) 
direct into the chamber without entering the hall. Here lhe tells him 
to wait while fhe goes in there (Id dedans), to give her people their 
flipper, and fhe leaves him while fhe gees into the hall. The lady after- 
wards fends her fervants to beat her huiband, pretending him to be an 
importunate fiiitor whom fhe wifhes to punifh ! " he waits for me up 
there in that room :" — 

La Jus nTatcnt en ce per in. 



Nefiujfrez pas que il en iJJ'e, 
Ain% Faciieillier al folier haut. 



They beat him as he defcends the ftairs, and purfue him into the garden, 
all which paffes without entering the lower apartments of the houfe. 
The foler, or upper part of the houfe, appears to have been conlidered 
the place of greateft fecurity — in facl: it could only be entered by one 
door, which was approached by a flight of fteps, and was therefore more 
eafily defended than the ground floor. In the beautiful ftory De I'ermite 
qui s ' acompaigna a I'ange, the hermit and his companion feek a night's 
lodging at the houfe of a rich but miferly ufurer, who refufes them 
admittance into the houfe, and will only permit them to fleep under the 
ftaircafe, in what the ftory terms an (invent or fhed. The next morning 



128 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



the hermit's young companion goes upftairs into the foler to find the 
ufurer, who appears to have flept there for fecurity — 

Le -vallet les degrez went a, 
El filler fon hofte tro-va. 

It was in the thirteenth century a proverbial chara&eriftic of an avaricious 
and inhofpitable perfon, to fhut his hall door and live in the foler. In a 
poem of this period, in which the various vices of the age are placed 
under the ban of excommunication, the mifer is thus pointed out : — 

Encor efcommeni-je plus 

Riche homme qui ferme fon huh, 

Et <ua mengier en filler jus. 

The huis was the door of the hall. The foler appears alio to have been 
confidered as the room of honour for rich lodgers or guefts who paid well. 
In the fabliau Des trois avugles de Compiengne, three blind men come to 
the houfe of a burgher, and require to be treated better than ufualj on 
which he fhows them upftairs — 

En la haute logis les maine. 

A clerc, who follows, after putting his horfe in the ftable, fits at table 
with his hoft in the hall, while the three other guefts are ferved " like 
knights" in the foler above — 

Et li a-vugle du filler 
Furent fir<vi com chevalier. 

During the period of which we are fpeaking, the richer the houfe- 
holder, the greater need he had of ftudying ftrength and fecurity, and 
hence with him the foler, or upper ftory, became of more importance, 
and was often made the principal part of the houfe, at leaft that in which 
himfelf and his family placed themfelves at night. This was efpecially 
the cafe in ftone buildings, where the ground-floor was often a low 
vaulted apartment, which feems to have been commonly looked upon as 
a cellar, while the principal room was on the firft-floor, approached 
ufually by a ftaircafe on the outfide. A houfe of this kind is reprefented 
in one of our cuts taken from the Bayeux tapeftry, where the guefts are 

caroming 



and Sentiments. 



129 



carouiing in the room on the firft-floor. Yet ftill the vaulted room on 
the ground-floor was perhaps more often confidered as the public apart- 
ment. In this manner the two apartments of the houfe, inftead of 
Handing fide by fide, were railed one upon the other, and formed exter- 
nally a fquare mafs of mafonry. Several examples of early manor-houles 
of this defcription ftill remain, among which one of the moft remarkable 
is that at Millichope in Shropshire, which evidently belongs to the latter 
half of the twelfth century. It has not been noticed in any work on 
domeftic archite&ure, but I am enabled to defcribe it from two private 




No. 85. Ancient Manor-Houfe, Millichope, S/iropJhire. 



lithographed plates by Mrs. Stackhoule Afton, of A&on Scott, from which 
the accompanying cuts are taken. The firft (No. 85) reprelents the prefent 
outward appearance of the ancient building, which is now an adjunct to a 
farm-houfe. The plan is a rectangle, confiderably longer from north to 
fouth than in the tranfverfe direction. The walls are immenfely thick 
on the ground-floor in companion to the fize of the building, as will be 
feen from the plan of the ground-floor given in the next cut (No. 86). 
The original entrance was at A, by a late Norman arch, llightly ornamented, 
which is feen in the view. To the right of this is feed one of the 

s original 



*3° 



Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 



original windows, alfo round arched. On the north and eaft fides were 
two other windows, the openings of them all being fmall towards the 
exterior, but enlarging inwards. The interior muft have been extremely 
dark ; neverthelefs it contains a fireplace, and was probably the public 




No. 86. Plan of Ground-Floor of Houfe at Millichope. 

room. The opening at a is merely a modern paffage into the farm-houfe. 
As this houfe ftands on the borders of Wales, and therefore fecurity was 
the principal confideration, the ftaircafe, from the thicknefs of the walls, 
was fafer infide than on the exterior. We accordingly find that it was 




No. 87. Plan of the Upper Floor. 

worked into the mafs of the wall in the fouth-weft corner, the entrance 
being at c. The fteps of the lower part — it was a ftone ftaircafe — are 
concealed or deftroyed, fa that we hardly know how it commenced, but 
there are fteps of ftone now running up to the foler or upper apartment, 

as 



and Sentiments. 



I 3 I 



as reprefented in our plan of the upper floor. This ftaircafe received 
light at the bottom and at the top, by a fmall loop-hole worked through 
the wall. Although the walls were fo maffive in the lower room, the 
ftaircafe was fecured by extraordinary precautions. At the top of the 
fteps at d, again at e, and a third time at J] were ftrong doors, fecured 
with bolts, which it would have required great force to break open. The 
laft of thefe doors led into the upper apartment, which was rather larger 
than the lower one, the weft wall being here much thinner. This was 
evidently the family apartment ; it had two windows, on the north and 
eaft fides, each having feats at the fide, with ornamentation of early 




Infide of Window at Millic/ioje. 



Engliih character. A view of the northern window from the interior, 
with its feats, is given in our cut No. 88 ; it is the fame which is feen 
externally in our fketch of the houfe : this room had no fireplace. 

Towards the fourteenth century, the rooms of houfes began to be 
multiplied, and they were often built round a court ; the additions were 
made chiefly to the offices, and to the number of chambers. They were 
ftill built more of wood than of ftone, and the carpenter was the chief 
perfon employed in their conftru6lion. In the fabliau of Trubert, printed 
by Moon, a duke, intending to build a new houfe, employs a carpenter 

to 



132 Hifiory of Dome/lie Manners 

to make the deiign, and takes him into his woods to felecf timber for 
materials. It may give fome notion of the hmplicity of the arrangement 
of a houfe, and the fmall number of rooms, even when required for 
royalty itfelf, when we ftate that in the January of 1251, king Henry III., 
intending to vifit Hamplhire, and requiring a houfe for himfelf with his 
queen and court, gave orders to the iheriff of Southampton to build at 
Freemantle a hall, a kitchen, and a chamber with an upper flory {cum 
eflagio, fometimes called in documents written in French chambre eftagee), 
aid a chapel on the ground, for the king's ufe ; and a chamber with an 
,ipper flory, with a chapel at the end of the fame chamber, for the 
queen's ufe. Under the chamber was to be made a cellar for the king's 
wines. 

The chamber had, indeed, now become fo important a part of the 
building, that its name was not unufually given to the whole houfe, which, 
in the documents of the thirteenth century, is fometimes called a camera 
ad eftagiam — an upper-ftoried chamber. Such was the cafe with a houfe 
built in 1285 for Edward I. and his queen in the foreft at Woolmer, in 
Hampfhire, the account of the expenfes of which are preferved in the 
Pipe Rolls. This houfe was feventy-two feet long, and twenty-eight 
feet wide. It had two chimneys, a chapel, and two wardrobes. The 
chapel and wardrobe had fix glazed windows. There was alfo a hall in 
it, but the two chimneys appear to have belonged to the chamber. The 
windows of the chamber and hall had wooden fhutters (Jioftia), but do 
not appear to have had glafs. The kitchen was the only other apart- 
ment in the houfe. The ordinary windows of a houfe at this time were 
not ufually glazed ; but they were either latticed, or confifted of a mere 
opening, which was covered by a cloth or curtain by day, and was clofed 
by a fhutter, which turned upon hinges, either tideways, like an ordinary 
door, or up and down, and which feems generally to have opened out- 
wards. The rooms were, in this manner, very imperfectly protected 
againfl the weather, even in palaces. A precept of Henry III. has been 
quoted, which directs glafs to be fubflituted for wood in a window in the 
queen's wardrobe at the Tower, " in order that that chamber might not 
be fo windy 5" and in the fame reign a charge is made in the accounts 

relating 



and Sentiments. i 3 3 



relating to the royal rnanor at Kennington, "for clofing the, windows 
better than ufual (et in fencjiris melius folito claudendis)"* 

Thefe remarks on the general character of the houfe are, of courfe, 
intended to apply to the ordinary dwelling-houfe, and not to the more 
extenfive manfion — which already in the thirteenth century was made to 
furround, wholly or partly, an interior court — or to the cafile. Thefe more 
extenfive edifices confided only of a greater accumulation of the rooms 
and details which were found in the fmaller houfe. During the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries, no great change took place in the general 
characferifiics of a private houfe. The hall was ftill the largeft and molt 
important room, and was now ufually raifed on an under vaulted room, 
which, to whatever ufe it may have been applied, was ufually called the 
cellar. Part of it appears to have been fometimes employed as the ftable. 
In the carpenter's houfe, in Chaucer's Milleres Tale, the hall, which is 
evidently the main part of the building, was open to the roof, with crols 
beams, on which they hanged the troughs, and the ftable was attached to 
it, and intervened between the houfe and the garden. In the Cokes 
Tale of Gamelyn, the hall has its pofts, or columns, and there is attached 
to it a room called a /pence, which was more frequently called the 
buttery, in which victuals of different kinds, and the wine and plate, were 
locked up, and the man who had the charge of it was called the fpencer 
or defpencer, which it is hardly necelfary to fay was the origin of two 
common Englifh furnames. The gentleman's houfe, in Chaucer's 
Sompnoures Tale, was a " large halle," and is called a court, which had 
now become an ordinary term for a manor-houfe. 

A ftordy paas doun to the court he goth, 

Wher as ther ivonyd a man of grct honour. — Chaucer's Cant. Tales, I. 7,74 I. 

In the Nonne Preftes Tale, the poor widow's cottage alio has its hall and 
lour, or chamber, although they were all footy, of courfe, from the fires, 
which had no chimney to carry off the fmoke. 

Fu/ footy ivas hir Lour, and cek hir halle. — lb. 1. 16,31s. 



* In the description of a splendid hall, in the English metrical romance of 
kyng Alisaiinder (Weber, i. 312), the windows are made " of riche glas." 

This 



134- Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 

This houfe was fituated within a court, or, as it is called, yard, which was 
enclofed by a hedge of flicks, and by a ditch : — 

A yerd fche had, enclofed al about e 
With Jiikkes, and a drye dich ivltkoute. 

In the Tale of Gamelyn, the yard, or court, as we ufe the Anglo-Saxon 
or the Anglo-Norman name for it, had a ftronger fence, with a gate and 
wicket fattened by lock and bolt, and apparently a lodge for the porter. 
In the yard there was a draw-well, feven fathoms deep. While Gamelyn 
took pofleffion of the hall, his brother fhut himfelf up in the cellar, which 
could be made a fafe place of refuge, when all the reft of the houfe was 
in the power of an enemy. The yard here had alfo a poftern-gate. In 
the carpenter's houfe, in Chaucer's Milleres Tale, the chamber has a low 
window, to fwing outwardly— 

So mote I thryve, I Jchal at cokkes crotve 
Ful pryvely go knokke at his ivyndoive, 
That jiant ful Ioive upon his boiyres ival — 

which is immediately afterwards called the " fchot wyndowe " — 

Unto his brefi it r aught, it ivas fo Ioive. 

A new apartment had now been added to the houfe, called in Anglo- 
Norman a parlour (parloir), becaufe it was literally the talking-room. 
It belonged originally to the monaftic houfes, where the parlour was the 
room for receiving people who came to converfe on bufinefs, and, when 
introduced into private houfes, it was a fort of fecondary hall, where 
vifitors might be received more privately than in the great hall, and yet 
with lefs familiarity than in the chamber. In the ftory of Sir Cleges, 
the knight finds the king feated in his parlour, and liftening to a harper. 
In a Latin document of the year 1473, printed in Rymer's Fcedera, a 
citizen of London has, in his manfion-houfe there, a parlour adjoining 
the garden (in quadam parlura adjacente gardino). 

Houfes were, as I have before ftated, ufually built in great part of 
timber, and it was only where unufual ftrength was required, or elfe from 
a fpirit of oftentation, that they were made of ftone. There appear to 

have 



and Sentiments. I 3 5 


have been very few fixtures in the infide, and, as furniture was fcanty, the 


rooms muft have appeared very bare. 
In timber houfes, of courfe, it was 


si 1/ .' 


not eafy to make cupboards or clofets 
in the walls, but this was not the 




cafe when they were built of ftone. 


t^^rH-TT" 


r £&4 


Even in the latter cafe, however, 


n 




1 


the walls appear not to have been 






much excavated for fuch purpofes. 


,' ' A 


W 1 


1 

ll 

J 


Our cut No. 89 reprefents a cup- 
board, door, taken from an illumi- 


; ^ J 


^CsT 


nated manufcript of the thirteenth 




century, in the Bodleian Library at 


Oxford 5 it is curious for its iron- 
work, efpecially the lock and key. 
The fmaller articles of domeftic ufe 


No. 89. A Cupboard Do.r. 

were ufually depofited in chefts, or 


placed upon fideboards and move- 
able flands. In the houfes of the 


' fitik 


wealthy a feparate room was built 
for the wardrobe. 


i/M i 


1 


The accompanying figure (cut 
No. 90), taken from a manufcript 




in the Cottonian Library (Nero, 




til f 




D. vii.), reprefents the cellarer, 


w|| 


\\ ' 




or houfe-fieward, of the abbey of 






St. Alban's, in the fourteenth cen- 


in 




tury, carrying the keys of the 
cellar door, which appear to be of 


/I 




remarkably large dimensions ; he 
holds the two keys in one hand, and 


M)JL 


w 


a purfe, or, rather, a bag of money, 
in the other, the fymbols of his 
office. A drawing in the fame MS., 


No. 90. The Cdlarcr oj St. Allan u 


copied in our cut No. 91, (hows us the entrance-door to an ordinary 




houfe, 



i 3 6 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



houfe, with a foler, or upper room, above. The individual intended to 
be reprefented was Alan Middleton, who is recorded in the catalogue 
of officers of St. Alban's as " collector of rents of the obedientiaries of 
that monastery, and efpecially of thofe of the burfar." A fmall tonfure 
denotes him as a monaftic officer, while the penner and inkhorn at his 
girdle denote the nature of his office ; and he is jufl opening the door of 
one of the abbey tenants to perform his function. The door is intended 
to be reprefented opening outwards. Thefe Benedicfines of St. Alban's 




No. 91. Alan Middleton. 



have alfo immortalifed another of their inferior officers, Walterus de 
Hamuntefham, who was attacked and grievoufly wounded by the rabble 
of St. Alban's, while ftanding up for the rights and liberties of the 
church. He appears (cut No. 92) to be attempting to gain fhelter in a 
houfe, which alfo has a foler. 

There was one fixture in the interior of the houfe, which is frequently 
mentioned in old writers, and muft not be overlooked. It was frequently 
called a perche (pertica), and confifled of a wooden frame fixed to the 
wall, for the purpofe of hanging up articles of clothing and various other 
things. The curious tracf of Alexander Neckam, entitled Summa de 

nominibus 



and Sentiments. 



37 



nominibus utenfilium, rtates that each chamber ihould have two perches, 
one on which the domeftic birds, hawks and falcons, were to fit, the other 
for lulpending ihirts, kerchiefs, breeches, capes, mantles, and other articles 




No. 92. Walter de Hamurrtcjham attacked by a Mob. 

of clothing. In reference to the latter ufage, one of the mediaeval Latin 
poets has the memorial line — 

Pertica diverfos pannos retinere Jolcbat. 

Our cut No. 93, taken from a manufcript of the Roman de la Rqfe, 
written in the fourteenth century, and now preferved in the National 
Library in Paris (No. 6985, fol. 2, v°), reprefents a perche, with two gar- 
ments fufpended upon it. The one rcprefented in our next cut (No. 94) is 
of rather a different form, and is made to fupport the arms of a knight, his 
helmet, fword, and ihield, and his coat of mail ; but how the fword and 
helmet are attached to it is far from clear. This example is taken from an 
illuminated manufcript of a well-known work by Gnillaume de Deguille- 
ville, Le Pelerinage de la Vie humaine, of the latter end of the fourteenth 
century, alfo preferved in the French National Library (No. 6988) : 

t another 



>38 



Hijiory of Domeft'ic Ma?iners 



another copy of the fame work, preferred in the fame great collection 
(No. 7210), but of the fifteenth century, gives a ftill more perfect repre- 
fentation of the perche, fupporting, as in the laft example, a helmet, a 





No. 04. Another Perche. 

lhield, and coats of mail. In the foreground, a queen is depofiting the 
ftaff and fcrip of a hermit in a cheft, for greater fecurity. This fubjecl is 
reprefented in our cut No. 9^. 

Furniture of every kind continued to be rare, and chairs were by no 




No. 95. Scene in a Chamber. 

means common articles in ordinary houfes. In the chambers, feats were 
made in the mafonry by the fide of the windows, as reprefented in our 

cut 



and Sentiments. 



39 



cut No. 88, and fometimes along the walls. Common benches were the 
ufual feats, and thefe were often formed by merely laying a plank upon 
two treftles. Such a bench is probably reprefented in the accompanying 
cut (No. 96), taken from a manufcript of the romance of Triftan, of the 




No. 96. A Bench on TreJIL 



fourteenth century, preferved in the National Library at Paris (No. 7178). 
Tables were made in the fame manner. We now, however, find not un- 
frequent mention of a table dormant in the hall, which was of courfe a table 
fixed to the fpot, and which was not taken away like the others : it was 
probably the great table of the dais, or upper end of the hall. To "begin 







No. 97. A Table on Treftles. 

the table dormant" was a popular phrafe, apparently equivalent to taking 
the firft place at the feaft. Chaucer, in the prologue to the Canterbury 
Tales, defcribing the profufe hofpitality of (he Frankeleyn, fays — 



His table dormant in his halle ahv<:y 
Stood rcdy covered al the longe day. 



Yel 



140 Hijiory of Dome ft ic Manners 

Yet, during the whole of this period, it continued to be the common 
practice to make the table for a meal, by merely laying a board upon 
treftles. The fecond cut on the preceding page (No. 97) is a very curious 
reprefentation of fuch a table, from a manufcript of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, preferved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MS. Arch. A. 154). 
It muft be underftood that the objects which are ranged alternately with 
the drinking-veffels are loaves of bread, not plates. 



and Sentiments. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE OLD ENGLISH HALL. THE KITCHEN, AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 

THE DINNER-TABLE. MINSTRELSY. 

AS I have already ftated, the hall continued to be the raoft important 
• part of the houfej and in large manlions it was made of pro- 
portional dimensions. It was a general place of rendezvous for the 
houfehold, efpecially for the retainers and followers, and in the evening 
it feems ufually to have been left entirely to them, and they made their 
beds and paffed the night in it. Strangers or vifitors were brought into 
the hall. In the curious old poem edited by Mr. Halliwell, entitled 
"The Boke of Curtafye," we find efpecial directions on this fubject. 
When a gentleman or yeoman came to the houfe of another, he was 
directed to leave his weapons with the porter at the outward gate or 
wicket, before he entered. It appears to have been the etiquette that if 
the perfon thus prefenting himfelf were of higher rank than the perfon 
he vifited, the latter fhould go out to receive him at the gate ; if the 
contrary, the vifitor was admitted through the gate, and proceeded to 
theihall. 

Whanne thou comes to a lordh gate, 

The porter thou Jhalle fynde t her ate ; 

Take (give) hym thoiv /halt thy ivcjyn tho (then)i 

And ajke hym leve in to go. 



. . . yf he be of log h (low) degr 
Than hym fallcs to come to the. 



At the hall door the vifitor was to take off his hood and gloves — 

When thoiv come tho halle dor to, 
Do of thy hode, thy gloves a/Jo. 

If, when he entered the hall, the vifitor found the family a1 meat, he 

ftood 



14.2 Hijlory of Dome flic Manners 

flood at the bottom of the apartment in a refpe&ful attitude, till the lord 
of the houfe lent a fervant to lead him to a place where he was to lit at 
table. As you defcended lower in fociety, fuch ceremonies were lefs 
obferved ; and the clergy in general feem to have been allowed a much 
greater licence than the laity. In the Sompneres Tale, in Chaucer, when 
the friar, who has received an infult from an inferior inhabitant, goes " to 
the court" to complain to the lord of the village, he finds the latter in 
his hall at the dinner table— 

This fr ere com, as he ivere in a rage, 

Wher that this lord fat etyng at his bord.— Chaucer's Cant. Tales, ]. 7748. 

The lord, furprifed at the agitation in the countenance of the friar, who 
had come in without any fort of introduction, invites him to lit down, 
and inquires into his bulinels. There is a fcene in the early Engliih 
metrical romance of Ipomydon, in which this hero and his preceptor 
Tholoman go to the relidence of the heirefs of Calabria. At the caftle 
gate they were flopped by the porter, whom they afk to. announce them 
in the hall :— 

The porter to theyme they gan calk, 

And prayd hym, ' Go into the hallc, 

And fay thy lady gent and f re, 

That come ar men offerre contre', 

And, if it plefe hyr, ive ivold liyr prey 

That ive myght ete -with hyr to-day. — -Wcter, Metr. Rom. ii. 2'JO. 

The porter " courteoufly" undertook the meffage, and, at the immediate 
order of the lady, who was fitting at her meat, he went back, iook 
charge of their horfes and pages, and introduced them into the hall. 
Then they afked to be taken into the lady's fervice, who accepted their 
offer, and invited them to take their place at the dinner : — 

He thankid the lady cortefly, 

She comandyth hym to the mete; 

But, or he fatte in any fete, 

He faluted theym grate and fmalle, 

As a gentille man Jhuld in halle. — Weber, ii. 292. 

Perhaps, before entering the mediaeval hall, we fhall do well to give 
a glance at the kitchen. It is an opinion, which has not unfrequently 

been 



and Sentiments. 143 



been entertained, that living in the middle ages was coarfe and not 
elaborate ; and that old Engliih fare conflfled chiefly in road: beef and 
plum-pudding. That nothing, however, could be more incorrect, is fully 
proved by the rather numerous mediaeval cookery books which are dill 
preferved, and which contain chiefly directions for made diflies, many of 
them very complicated, and, to appearance, extremely delicate. The 
office of cook, indeed, was one of great importance, and was well paid ; 
and the kitchens of the ariftocracy were very extenfive, and were fur- 
nilhed with a confiderable variety of implements of cookery. On 
account, no doubt, of this importance, Alexander Neckam, although an 
ecclefiaftic, commences his vocabulary (or, as it is commonly entitled, 
Liber de Utenfilibus), compiled in the latter part of the twelfth century, 
with an account of the kitchen and its furniture. He enumerates, among 
other objefts, a table for chopping and mincing herbs and vegetables ; 
pots, trivets or tripods, an axe, a mortar and peftle, a mover, or pot-flick, 
for ftirring, a crook or pot-hook (uncus), a caldron, a frying-pan, a grid- 
iron, a pofhet or faucepan, a dilh, a platter, a faucer, or veflel for mixing 
fauce, a hand-mill, a pepper-mill, a mier, or inflrument for reducing 
bread to crumbs. John de Garlande, in his "Dicfionarius," compofed 
towards the middle of the thirteenth century, gives a fimilar enumeration ; 
and a companion of the vocabularies of the fifteenth century, ihows that 
the arrangements of the kitchen had undergone little change during the 
intervening period. From thefe vocabularies the following lirt of kitchen 
utenfils is gathered: — a brandreth, or iron tripod, for fupporting the 
caldron over the tire 5 a caldron, a drefling-board and dretiing-knife, a 
brafs-pot, a pofnet, a frying-pan, a gridiron, or, as it is fometimes called, 
a roafting-iron ; a lpit, a " gobard," explained in the MS. by ipegurgium ; 
a mier, a flefh-hook, a fcummer, a ladle, a pot-flick, a dice for turning- 
meat in the frying-pan, a pot-hook, a mortar and peftle, a pepperrquern, 
a platter, a faucer. 

The older illuminated manufcripts are rarely l<> elaborate as to furnifti 
us with reprefentations of all thefe kitchen implements ; and, in fact, it 
is not in the more elaborately illuminated manufcripts that kitchen fcenes 
are often found. But we meet with reprefentations of" tome of them in 

artiftic 



144 



Hijlory of Domeftic Manners 



artiftic iketches of a lefs elaborate character, though thefe are generally 
conne&ed with the lefs refined proceffes of cookery. The mediaeval 
landlords were obliged to confume the produce of the land on their own 
eftates, and, for this and other very cogent reafons, a large proportion 
of the provifions in ordinary ufe confifted of falted meat, which was laid 
up in ftore in vaft quantities in the baronial larders. Hence boiling was 
a much more common method of cooking meat than roafting, for which, 
indeed, the mediaeval fire, placed on the ground, was much lefs con- 
venient ; it is, no doubt, for this reafon that the cook is mod frequently 
reprefented in the mediaeval drawings with the caldron on the fire. In 
fome inftances, chiefly of the fifteenth century, the caldron is fupported 
from above by a pot-hook, but more ufually it ftands over the fire upon 
three legs of its own, or upon a three-legged frame. A manufcript in 
the Britilh Mufeum of the fourteenth century (MS. Reg. to, E. iv.), 
belonging formerly to the monaftery of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, 
contains a feries of fuch illuftrations, from which the following are felecled. 

In the firft of thefe (No. 98) it is 
evidently a three-legged caldron 
which ftands over the fire, to 
increafe the heat of which the 
cook makes ufe of a pair of bel- 
lows, which bears a remarkably 
clofe refemblance to the fimilar 
articles made in modern times. 

No. 98. Makin? the Pot boil. „ ,, • i • 

* Bellows were certainly in common 

ufe in Anglo-Saxon times, for the name is Anglo-Saxon, Icelg, Icelig, 
and lylig ; but as the original meaning of this word was merely a lag, it 
is probable that the early Anglo-Saxon bellows was of very rude character : 
it was fometimes diftinguiihed by the compound name, llaji-lcelg, a blaft- 
bag, or bellows. Our fecond example from this MS. (cut No. 99) is one 
of a feries of defigns belonging to fome mediaeval ftory or legend, with 
which I am not acquainted. A young man carrying the veflel for the 
holy water, and the afperfoir with which it was fprinkled over the people, 
and who may therefore be fuppofed to be the holy-water clerc, is 

making 




and Sentiments. 



H5 



making acquaintance with the female cook. The latter feems to have 
been interrupted in the act of taking fome object out of the caldron with 
a flefh-hook. The caldron here again is three-legged. In the fequel, 




No. 99. The Holy-Water Clerc and the Cook. 

the acquaintance between the cook and the holy-water clerc appears to 
have ripened into love ; but we may prefume from the manner in which 
it was reprefented (No. 100), that this love was not of a very dilintereiled 




No. 1 00. Intcrejlcd Fr'undfhtp. 

chara£ter on the part of the clerc, for he is taking advantage of her 
affection to Ileal the animal which ihe is boiling in the caldron. The 

u conventional 



Hijlory of Domejitc Manners 



conventional manner in which the animal feems to be drawn, renders it 
difficult to decide what that animal is. The mediaeval artifts fhow a tafte 
for playful delineations of this kind, which occur not unfrequently in 




oi . A Kitchen Scene. 



illuminated manufcripts, and in carvings and fculptures. One of the 
flails in Hereford cathedral, copied in the accompanying cut (No. 101), 

reprefents a fcene of this defcrip- 
tion. A man is attempting to take 
liberties with the cook, who has in 
return thrown a platter at his head. 
In our next cut (No. 102), taken 
from another MS. in the Britifh 
Mufeum, alfo of the fourteenth 
century (MS. Reg. 16, E. viii.), 
the objecf cooked in the caldron is 
a boar's head, which the cook, an 
ill-favoured and hump-backed man, 
is placing on a difh to be carried to 
the table. The caldron, in this inftance, appears to be intended to 
have been of more ornamental character than the others. 

It 




02. The Boards Head. 



and Sentiments. 



47 



It will have been remarked that in moll of thele pictures the procefs 
of cookery appears to have been carried on in the open air, for, in one 
inftance, a tree Hands not far from the caldron. This appears, indeed, to 
have been frequently the cafe, and there can be no doubt that it was 
intended to be lb reprelented in our next cut (No. 103), taken from the 
well-known manufcript of the romance of " Alexander," in the Bodleian 
Library, at Oxford. We have here the two procelfes of boiling and 




7/0.103. Bailing and Roafting. 

roafting, but the latter is only employed for fowls (geefe in this cafe). 
While the cook is bailing them, the quiftron, or kitchen-boy, is turning 
the fpit, which is fupported in a very curious manner on one leg of the 
tripod or trivet, on whirl) the caldron is here fupporlcd. The building 
to the right is QlOWD by the lign to be .111 inn, and uv are, probably, to 
fuppofe, that this out-of-door cooking is required by fome unufual feftivity. 

All hough 



148 Hi [lory of Domejiic Manners 

Although meat was, doubtlefs, fometimes roafted, this procefs feems 
to have been much more commonly applied to poultry and game, and 
even frefh meat was very ufually boiled. One caufe of this may, perhaps, 
have been, that it feems to have been a common practice to eat the meat, 
and even game, frefh killed — the beef or mutton feems to have been 
often killed for the occafion on the day it was eaten. In the old fabliau 
of the "Bouchier d' Abbeville" (Barbazan, torn. iv. p. 6), the butcher, 
having come to Bailueil late in the evening, and obtained a night's 
lodging at the prieft's, kills his fheep for the fupper. The moulders were 
to be roafted, the reft, as it appears, was recommended to be boiled. 
The butchers, indeed, feem ufually to have done their work in the 
kitchen, and to have killed and cut up the animals for the occafion. 
There is a curious ftory in the Englifh Gefta Romanorum (edited by 
Sir Frederic Madden), which illuftrates this practice. " Caefar was em- 
peror of Rome, that had a foreft, in the which he had planted vines and 
other divers trees many ; and he ordained over his foreft a fteward, whofe 
name was Jonatas, bidding him, upon pain, to keep the vines and the 
plants. It fell, after this ordinance of the emperor, that Jonatas took the 
care of the foreft ; and upon a day a fwine came into the foreft, the new 
plants he rooted up. When Jonatas faw the fwine enter, he cut off his 
tail, and the fwine made a cry, and went out. Nevertheless, he entered 
again, and did much harm in the foreft. When Jonatas faw that, he 
cut off his left ear; and the hog made a great cry, and went out. 
Notwithstanding this, he entered again the third day ; and Jonatas faw 
him, and cut off his right ear, and with a horrible cry he went out. Yet 
the fourth day the fwine re-entered the foreft, and did much damage. 
When Jonatas faw that the hog would not be warned, he fmote him 
through with his fpear, and flew him, and delivered the body to the 
cook for to array the next day to the emperor's meat. But when the 
emperor was ferved of this fwine, he afked of his fervants, < Where is 
the heart of this fwine ?'— becaufe the emperor loved the heart beft of 
any beaft, and more than all the beaft. The fervants afked the cook 
where the heart of the fwine was, for the lord inquired after it. The 
cook, when he had arrayed the heart, faw it was good and fat, and eat 

it ; 



and Sentiments. 149 



it j and he laid to the fervants, ' Say to the emperor that the hog had 
no heart.' The emperor faid, 'It may not be ; and therefore lay to him, 
upon pain of death, that he fend me the heart of the fwine, for there is 
no beaft in all the world without a heart.' The fervants went to the 
cook with the emperor's orders ; and he replied, ' Say to my lord, but 
if I prove mightily by clear reafons that the fwine had no heart, I put 
me fully to his will, to do with me as he likes.' The emperor, when 
he heard this, afligned him a day to anfwer. When the day was come, 
the cook, with a high voice, faid before all men, ' My lord, this is the 
day of my anfwer. Firft I fhall lhow you that the fwine had no heart ; 
this is the reafon. Every thought cometh from the heart, therefore every 
man or beaft feeleth good or evil j it followeth of neceflity that by this 
the heart thinketh.' The emperor faid, 'That is truth.' 'Then,' faid 
the cook, 'now lhall I lhow by reafons that the fwine had no heart. 
Firft he entered the foreft, and the fteward cut oft' his tail ; if he had had 
a heart, he lhould have thought on his tail that was loft, but he thought 
not thereupon, for afterwards he entered the foreft, and the forefter 
cut off his left ear. If he had had a heart, he ihould have thought on 
his left ear, but he thought not, for the third time he entered the foreft. 
That faw the forefter, and cut off his right ear ; where, if he had had 
a heart, he fhould have thought that he had loft his tail and both his 
ears, and never fhould have gone again where he had fo many evils. 
But yet the fourth time he entered the foreft, and the fteward faw 
that, and Hew him, and delivered him to me to array to your meat. 
Here may ye fee, my lord, that I have fliown, by worthy reafons. thai 
the fwine had no heart.' And thus efcaped the cook." 

The ftory which follows this in the Gefta, tells of an emperor named 
" Alexaundre," "who of great need ordained for a law, that no man 
fhould turn the plaice in his difh, but that he lhould only eat the white 
fide, and in no wife the black fide ; and if any man did the contrary, lie 
fhould die!" It is hardly necelfary to remark, that iilh was a great 
article of confumption in the middle ages, and efpecially among the 
ecclefiaftics and monks. The accompanying cut on the following page 
(No. 104), from a manufcript of the fourteenth century in the British 

Mufeum 



5° 



Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 



Mufeum (MS. Harl. No. 1527), reprefents probably the fteward of a 
monastery receiving a prefent of Mi. 

In large houfes, and on great occafions, the various meats and dimes 
were carried from the kitchen to the hall with extraordinary ceremony 
by the fervants of the kitchen, who delivered them at the entrance of 
the hall to other attendants of a higher clafs, who alone were allowed to 
approach the tables. Our cut No. io£ from MS. Reg. 10, E. iv., repre- 
fents one of thefe fervants carrying a pot and platter, or ftand for the pot, 




No. 104. A Prefent of Fijh. 




05. A Pot and Platter. 



which, perhaps, contained gravy or foup. The roafts appear to have been 
ufually carried into the hall on the fpits, which, among people of great 
rank, were fometimes made of filver 5 and the guefts at table feem to 
have torn, or cut, from the fpit what they wanted. Several early 
illuminations reprefent this practice of people helping themfelves from 
the fpits, and it is alluded to, not very unfrequently, in the mediaeval 
writers. In the romance of " Parife la Ducheffe," when the fervants 
enter the hall with the meats for the table, one is defcribed as carrying 
a roafted peacock on a fpit : — 

At ant e% les ferjanz qui portent le mangier ; 

Li uns forte .i. paon roti en un afiier. — Rumani de Parise, p. 172. 

In the romance of " Garin le Loherain," on an occafion when a 
quarrel began in the hall at the beginning of the dinner, the duke Begon, 

for 



and Sentiments. 



I5 1 



for want of other weapons, fnatched from the hands of one of the attend- 
ants a long fpit " full of plovers, which were hot and roafted :" — 



Li dus a-voit un grant haftier faiji, 
Plain de plo-viers, qui chaut junt et rojli 



-Romans do Gai 



But the moft curious illuftration of the univerfality of this practice is 
found in a Latin ftory, probably of the thirteenth century, in which we 
are told of a man who had a glutton for his wife. One day he roafted 
for their dinner a fowl, and when they had fat down at the table, the 
wife faid, " Give me a wing?" The hufband gave her the wing ; and. 




No. 1 06. Bringing the Dinner into Hall. 

at her demand, all the other members in fucceftion, until ihe had devoured 
the whole fowl herfelf, at which, no longer able to contain his anger, ho 
faid, " Lo, you have eaten the whole fowl yourfelf, and nothing remains 
but the fpit, which it is but right that you fhould tafte alio." And 
thereupon he took the fpit, and beat her feverely with it. 

Our cut (No. 106), taken from a large illumination, given from a 
manufcript of the fifteenth century by the late M. du Sommerard, in his 
great work on mediaeval art, reprefents the Tenants of the hall, headed 
by the fteward, or mattre d' hotel, with his rod of office, bringing the 

diflies 



Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 



dilhes to the table in formal proceffion. Their approach and arrival were 
ufually announced by the founding of trumpets and mufic. The fervants 
were often preceded by mufic, as we fee in our cut No. 107, taken 
from a very fine MS. of the early part of the fourteenth century, 
in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. Reg. 2, B. vii.). A reprefentation of a 
fimilar fcene occurs at the foot of the large Flemifh brafs of Robert 
Braunche and his two wives at St. Margaret's Church, Lynn, which is 
intended as a delineation of a feaft given by the corporation of Lynn to 
king Edward III. Servants from both fides of the picture are bringing 
in that famous difli of chivalry, the peacock with his tail difplayed ; and 
two bands of minftrels are ufhering in the banquet with their {trains 5 the 




.ZVe. 1 07. Serving 



date of the brafs is about 1364 a.d. • Thofe who ferved at the table 
itfelf, whofe bufinefs was chiefly to carve and prefent the wine, were of 
fiill higher rank — never lefs than efquires — and often, in the halls of 
princes and great chiefs, nobles and barons. The meal itfelf was con- 
dueled with the fame degree of ceremony, of which a vivid picture may 
be drawn from the directions given in the work called the " Menagier de 
Paris," compofed about the year 1393. When it was announced that 
the dinner was ready, the guefts advanced to the hall, led ceremonioufly 
by two maitres d'hotel, who fhowed them their places, and ferved them 
with water to walh their hands before they began. They found the 
tables fpread with fine table-cloths, and covered with a profufion of 
richly-ornamented plate, confiding of lalt-cellars, goblets, pots or cups for 

drinking, 



and Sentiments. 



53 



drinking, fpoons, &rc. At the high table, the meats were eaten from 
flices of bread, called trenchers {tranchoirs) , which, after the meats were 
eaten, were thrown into veflels called couloueres. In a confpieuous part 
of the hall flood the dreifer or cupboard, which was covered with veflels 
of plate, which two efquires carried thence to the table, to replace thofe 
which were emptied. Two other efquires were occupied in bringing 
wine to the drefler, from whence it was ferved to the guefls at the tables. 
The dilhes, forming a number of courfes, varying according to the occa- 
fion, were brought in by valets, led by two efquires. An affeeur, or 
placer, took the diflies from the hands of the valets, and arranged them 
in their places on the table. After thefe courfes, frelh table-cloths were 
laid, and the entremets were brought, confifting of fweets, jellies, &c, 
many of them moulded into elegant or fantaftic forms ; and, in the 
middle of the table, raifed above the reft, were placed a fwan, peacocks, 
or pheafants, drefled up in their feathers, with their beaks and feet gilt. 
In lefs fumptuous entertainments the expenfive courfe of entremets was 
ufually omitted. Laft of all came the deflert, confifting of cheefe, con- 
fedtionaries, fruit, &c, concluded by what was called the i/Jue (departure 
from table), confifting ufually of a draught of hypocras, and the boute-hors 
(turn out), wine and fpices ferved round, which terminated the repaft. 
The guefts then wafhed their hands, and repaired into another room, 
where they were ferved with wine and fvveetmeats, and, after a lhort 
time, feparated. The dinner, ferved ftowly and ceremoniouily, mull 
have occupied a confiderable length of time. After the guefts had left 
the hall, the fervers and attendants took their places at the tables. 

The furniture of the hall was fimple, and confifted of but a few 
articles. In large refidences, the floor at the upper end of the hall was 
raifed, and was called the dais. On this the chief table was placed, 
ftretching lengthways acrofs the hall. The fubordinate tables were 
arranged below, down each fide of the hall. In the middle was 
generally the fire, fometimes in an iron grate. At the upper end of the 
hall there was often a cup-board or a drefler lor the plate, &c. The 
tables were ftill merely boards placed on treflels, though the table dor- 
mant, or ftationary table, began to be more common. Perhaps the large 

x table 



'54 



Hiftory of Dome fit c Manners 



table on the dais was generally a table dormant. The feats were merely 
benches or forms, except the principal feat againft the wall on the dais, 
which was often in the form of a fettle, with back and elbows. Such a 
feat is reprefented in our cut No. 108, taken from a manufcript of the 
romance of Meliadus, in the National Library at Paris, No. 6961. On 




No. 10B. The Seat on the Dais. 



fpecial occafions, the hall was hung round with tapeftry, or curtains, 
which were kept for that purpofe, and one of thefe curtains feems com- 
monly to have been fufpended againft the wall behind the dais. A 
carpet was fometimes laid on the floor, which, however, was more 
ufually fpread with rufhes. Sometimes, in the illuminations, the floor 
appears to be paved with ornamental tiles, without carpet or rallies. It 

was 



and Sentiments. 1 5 5 



was alio not unufual to bring a chair into the hall as a mark of particular 
refpe6t. Thus, in the Englifh metrical romance of Sir Ifumbras : — 

The riche qivene in haulle ivas fctt, 
Knyghttes hir fcr-ves to handes and fete, 

Were clede in robis of palle ; 
In the flour e a clothe ivas layde, 
" This poore palmere" the fteivarde fayde, 

" Salle jy tie aboivene yoiv alle." 
Mete and drynke ivas fort he broghte, 
Sir If am brace fctt and ete nog/ite, 

Bot luked aboivte in the haulle. 

So lange he fatt and ete nog/ite, 
That the lady grete tuondir thoghte, 
And tille a knyghte ganefaye, 
" Bryng a chayere and a qivyfchenc (cushion), 
And fett yone poore palmere therin." 

A riche chayere than ivas t her fett, 

This poore palmere therin ivas fctt, 

He tolde hir of his laye. 

Until comparatively a very recent date, the hour of dinner, even 
among the higher!: claffes of fociety, was ten o'clock in the forenoon. 
There was an old proverb which defined the divifions of the domeftic 
day as follows : — 

Lever a fix, difner a dix, 
Souper a fix, coucher a dix. 

Which is preferved in a iiill older and more complete form as follows : — 

Lever a cinq, diner a neuf, 
Souper a cinq, coucher a ncuf, 
Fait vivre d^ans nonante ct ncuf. 

Five o'clock was the well-known hour of the afternoon meal ; and nine 
feems formerly to have been an ordinary hour for dinner. In the tinu- 
of Chaucer, the hour of prime appears to have been the ufual dinner 
hour, which perhaps meant nine o'clock. At leaft the monk, in the 
Schipmannes Tale, calls for dinner at prime : — 

" Goth noiv your ivay,'"'' quod he, " al ftille and fofte, 

And let us dyne as f one as ye may, 

For by my chilindre it is prime of day. " 

And 



156 Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 

And the lady to whom this is addrefled, in reply, exprefles impatience, left 
they fhould pafs the hour. The dinner appears to have been ufually 
announced by the blowing of horns. In the romance of Richard Cceur 
de Lion, on the arrival of vifitors, the tables were laid out for dinner — 

They fette trejieks, and layde a horde ; 
Trumpes begonne for to bloive. — Weber, ii. 7. 

Before the meal, each gueft was ferved with water to wafh. It was 
the bufinefs of the ewer to ferve the guefts with water for this purpofe, 
which he did with a jug and bafin, while another attendant ftood by 
with a towel. Our cut No. 109, reprefents this procefs ; it is taken from 




Wajh'mg before Dinner. 



a fine manufcript of the " Livre de la Vie Humaine," preferred in the 
National Library in Paris, No. 6988. In the originals of this group, the 
jug and bafin are reprefented as of gold. In the copy of the Seven 
Sages, printed by Weber (p. 148), the preparations for a dinner are thus 
defcribed : — 

Thai fet treftes, and hordes on layd ; 
Thai fp red clathes, and fait on ft, 
And made redy unto the mete ; 
Thai fet forth water and toivelk. 

The company, however, fometimes wafhed before going to the table, and 

for 



and Sentiments. 157 



for this purpofe there were lavours, or lavatories, in the hall itfelf, or 
fometimes outfide. The fignal for wafliing was then given by the 
blowing of trumpets, or by the mafic of the minfirels. Thus, in the 
Englifh metrical romance of Richard Cceur de Lion, 

At noon a la-ver the ivaytes blewe, 

meaning, of courfe, the canonical hour of ?to?ie. Grace was alio laid at the 
commencement, or at the end, of the meal, but this part of the cere- 
mony is but flightly alluded to in the old writers. 

Having wafhed, the guefts feated themfelves at table. Then the 
attendants fpread the cloths over the tables ; they then placed on them 
the falt-cellars and the knives ; and next the bread, and the wine in 
drinking cups. All this is duly defcribed in the following lines of an old 
romance : — 

Quant la-ve ' orent t Ji f 'afijlrcnt , 
Et li ferjant les napes mijlrent, 
Defus les dobliers blans et biax, 
Les f alien et les coutiax; 
Apres lou pain, puis lo -vin 
Et copes tf 'argent et a" or fin. 

Spoons were alfo ufually placed on the table, but there were no forks, 
the guefts ufing their fingers inftead, which was the reafon they were fo 
particular in wafliing before and after meat. The tables being thus 
arranged, it remained for the cooks to ferve up the various prepared 
difhes. 

At table the guefts were not only placed in couples, but they alfo eat 
in couples, two being ferved with the fame food and in the lame plate. 
This practice is frequently alluded to in the early romances and fabliaux. 
In general the arrangement of the couples was not left to mere chance, 
but individuals who were known to be attached to each other, or who 
were near relatives, were placed together. In the poem of La Mule lanz 
Frain, the lady of the caftle makes Sir Gawain (it by her fide, and eat 
out of the fame plate with her, as an aft of friendly courteiy. In the 
fabliau of Trubert, a woman, taken into the houfehold of a duke, is feated 
at table befide the duke's daughter, and eats out of the fame plate with 

her, 



158 Hi/lory of Dome/lie Manners 

her, becaufe the young lady had conceived an affectionate feeling for the 
vifltor. So, again, in the ftory of the provoft of Aquilee, the provoft's 
lady, receiving a vifitor fent by her hulband (who was abfent), placed 
him at table betide her, to eat with her, and the reft of the party were 
fimilarly feated, " tw^and two : " — 

La dame premiere p aftift, 

Son hofte le% luijeoirfift, 

Car mengier voloit avec lui ; 

Li autre fuivnt dui et dui. — M6on Fabliaux, ii. 102. 

In one of the ftories in the early Englifh Gefta Romanorum, an earl and 
his fon, who dine at the emperor's table, are feated together, and are 
ferved with one plate, a fifh, between them. The practice was, indeed, 
fo general, that the phrafe " to eat in the fame difh" {manger dans la meme 
ecuelle), became proverbial for intimate friendfhip between two perfons. 

There was another practice relating to the table which muft not be 
overlooked. It muft have been remarked that, in the illuminations of 
contemporary manufcripts which reprefent dinner fcenes, the guefts are 
rarely reprefented as eating on plates. In fact, only certain articles were 
ferved in plates. Loaves were made of a fecondary quality of flour, and 
thefe were firft pared, and then cut into thick llices, which were called, 
in French, tranchoirs, and, in Englifh, trenchers, becaufe they were to be 
carved upon. The portions of meat were ferved to the guefts on thefe 
tranchoirs, and they cut it upon them as they eat it. The gravy, of 
courfe, went into the bread, which the gueft fometimes, perhaps always 
at an earlier period, eat after the meat, but in later times, and at the 
tables of the great, it appears to have been more frequently fent away to 
the alms-bafket, from which the leavings of the table were diftributed to 
the poor at the gate. All the bread ufed at table feems to have been 
pared, before it was cut, and the parings were thrown into the alms-dilh. 
Walter de Bibblefworth, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, 
among other directions for the laying out of the table, fays, " Cut the 
bread which is pared, and let the parings be given to the alms" — 

Tayllet le payn ke eft pare'e, 
Let bijeaus a Pamoyne foyt done'. 

The 



and Sentiments. 



159 



The practice is alluded to in the romance of Sir Triftrem (fytte i. ft. I.) — 

The kyng no fey d no more, 

Bot iucfche and yede (went) to mete ; 
Bred thai fard and /chare (cut), 

Ynough thai hadde at ete. 

It was the duty of the almoner to fay grace. The following directions 
are given in the Boke of Curtafye (p. 30) : — 

The aumenere by this hat lie fayde grace, 

And the almef-dvfjhe haje fett in place ; 

Therin the kar-ver a lofe jchalle fette } 

Tofer-ve God fyrji ivithouten lette ; 

Thefe othere lofes he parys aboute, 

Lays hit myd (with) dyj/he, ivithouten dotite. 

The ufe of the tranchoir, which Froiifart calls a tail loir, is not unfre- 
quently alluded to in the older French writers. That writer tells the 




0. 1 10. A Dinner Scene. 



ftory-of a prince who, having received poiJjbn in :) powder, and fufpe&ing 
it, put it on a tailloir of bread, and thus gave it to a dog to eat. One of 
the French poets of the fifteenth century, Martial de Paris, (peaking 
againft the extravagant tables kept by the bilhops a< that time, exclaims, 
"Alas! what have the poor? They have only the tranchoirs of bread 

which 



i6o 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



which remain on the table." An ordinance of the dauphin Humbert II., 
of the date of 1336, orders that there mould be ferved to him at table 
every day " loaves of white bread for the mouth, and four fmall loaves to 
ferve for tranchoirs" (pro inciforio faciendo). For great people, a filver 
platter was often put under the tranchoir, and it was probable from the 
extenfion of that practice that the tranchoirs became ultimately aban- 
doned, and the platters took their place. 

We give three examples of dinner-fcenes, from manufcripts of the four- 
teenth century. The rirft, cut No. no (on the laft page), is taken from a 
manufcript belonging to the National Library in Paris, No. 7210, containing 




No. 



A Kino- at Dinner. 



the " Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine." The party are eating nfh, or rather 
have been eating them, for the bones and remnants are ftrewed over the 
table. We have, in addition to thefe, the bread, knives, falt-cellars, and 
cups j and on the ground a remarkable collection of jugs for holding the 
liquors. Our fecond example, cut No. 111, is taken from an illuminated 
manufcript of the romance of Meliadus, preferved in the Britifh Mufeum 
(Additional MS., No. 12,228). We have here the curtain or tapeftry 
hung behind the fingle table. The man to the left is probably the 
fteward, or the fuperior of the hall 5 next to him is the cup-bearer ferving 

the 



d Sentiments. 



the liquor j further to the right we have the carver cutting the meat ; and 
laft of all the cook bringing in another diih. The table is laid much in 
the fame manner in our third example, cut No. 112. We have again 
the cups and the bread, the latter in round cakes ; in our fecond example 
they are marked with erodes, as in the Anglo-Saxon illuminations; but 
there are no forks, or even fpoons, which, of courie, were ufed for 
pottage and foups, and were perhaps brought on and taken off with 
them. All the guefts feem to be ready to ufe their fingers. 

There was much formality and ceremony obferved in filling and pre- 
fenting the cup, and it required long inftruction to make the young cup- 




No. 112. A Royal Fcajl. 

bearer perfeft in his duties. In our cut No. ill, it will be obferved that 
the carver holds the meat with his fingers while he cuts it. This is in 
exa£t accordance with the rules given in the ancient " Boke of Kervyng," 
where this officer is told, "Set never on fylhe, flefche, beeft, ne fowle, 
more than two fyngers and a thombe." It will be obferved alio that in 
none of thefe pictures have the guefts any plates; they feem to have 
eaten with their hands, and thrown the refufe on the table. "We know 
alio that they often threw the fragments on the floor, where they were 
eaten up by cats and dogs, which were admitted into the hall without 

Y nliiHtinn 



1 62 Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 

reftriciion of number. In the " Boke of Curtafye," already mentioned, 
it is blamed as a mark of bad breeding to play with the cats and dogs 
while feated at table — 

Wherejo thoujitt at mete in horde (at table), 

A-voide the cat at on bare tuorde, 

For yf thou Jiroke cat other dogge, 

Thou art lyke an ape teyghed with a clogge. 

Some of thefe directions for behaviour are very droll, and mow no great 
refinement of manners. A gueft at table is recommended to keep his 
nails clean, for fear his fellow next him fhould be dilgufted — 

Loke thy naylys ben dene in blythe, 
Left thy felaghe lothe therivyth. 

He is cautioned againft fpitting on the table — 

If thou /pit on the horde or elks opone, 
Thoujhalle be holden an uncurtayfe mon. 

When he blows his nofe with his hand (handkerchiefs were not, it appears, 
in ufe), he is told to wipe his hand on his lkirt or on his tippet — 

Tf thy nofe thou clenfe, as may hefalle, 
Loke thy honde thou clenfe ivithalle, 
Pri-vely ivith fkyrt do hit aivay, 
Or ellis thurgh thi tepet that is Jo gay. 

He is not to pick his teeth with his knife, or with a ftraw or flick, nor 
to clean them with the table-cloth ; and, if he fits by a gentleman, he is 
to take care he does not put his knee under the other's thigh ! 

The cleanlinefs of the white table-cloth feems to have been a matter 
of pride j and to judge by the illuminations great care feems to have 
been taken to place it neatly and fmoothly on the table, and to arrange 
taftefully the part which hung down at the fides. Generally fpeaking, 
the fervice on the table in thefe illuminations appears to be very fimple, 
confifling of the cups, ftands for the diihes of meat (merles, as they were 
called) brought by the cook, the knives, fometimes fpoons for foup and 
liquids, and bread. Oftentatious ornament is not often introduced, and 

it 



and Sentiments. 



163 



it was perhaps only ufed at the tables of princes and of the more powerful 

nobles. Of thefe ornaments, one of the moft remarkable was the nef, or 

ihip — a veffel, generally of filver, which contained the falt-cellar, towel, 

&c., of the prince, or great lord, on whole table it was brought with great 

ceremony. It was in the form of a fhip, 

raifed on a ftand, and on one end it had 

fome figure, fuch as a ferpent, or cattle, 

perhaps an emblem or badge chofen by its 

poiTelTor. Our cut No. 113, taken from a 

manufcript in the French National Library, 

reprefents the nef placed on the table. 

The badge or emblem at the end appears 

to be a bird. 

Our forefathers feem to have remained 
a tolerably long time at table, the plea- 
fures of which were by no means defpifed. 
Indeed, to judge by the fermons and fatires 
of the middle ages, gluttony feems to have 
been a very prevalent vice among the clergy as well as the laity ; and 
however miferably the lower claffes lived, the tables of the rich were 
loaded with every delicacy that could be procured. The monks were 
proverbially Ions vivants ; and their failings in this refpect are not unfre- 
quently fatirifed in the illuminated orna- 
ments of the mediaeval manuscripts. We 
have an example in our cut No. 114, taken 
from a manufcript of the fourteenth cen- 
tury in the Arundel Collection in the 
Britiih Mufeum (No. 91)5 a monk is 
regaling himfelf on the fly, apparently 
upon dainty tarts or patties, while the 
diih is held up by a little cloven-footed imp who feems to enjoy the 
fpirit of the thing, quite as much as the other enjoys the fubftance. < >ur 
next cut (No. 115) is taken from another manufcript in the Britiih Mufeum 
of the fame date (MS. Sloane, No. 24,35), and forms an appropriate com- 
panion 




The Nef. 




No. 114. Gluttony. 



164 



Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 



panion to the other. The monk here holds the office of cellarer, and is 

taking advantage of it to confole himfelf on the fly. 

When the laft courfe of the dinner had been ferved, the ewer and 

his companion again carried round the water and towel, and each gueft 
wafhed. The tables were then cleared and the 
cloths withdrawn, but the drinking continued. 
The minftrels were now introduced. To judge 
by the illuminations, the moft common mufical 
attendant on fuch occalions was a harper, who 
repeated romances and told fiories, accom- 
panying them with his inftrument. In one of 
our cuts of a dinner party (No. 112), given in 
a former page, we fee the harper, apparently 
a blind man, led by his dog, introduced into 
the hall while the guefts are ftill occupied with 
their repair. We frequently find a harper thus 

introduced, who is fometimes reprefented as fitting upon the floor, as in the 

accompanying illuflration (No. it6) from the MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 71, v°. 

Another fimilar reprefentation occurs at folio 203, v° of the fame MS. 




No. 115. Monajiic Devotions. 




6. The Harper in the Hall. 



The barons and knights themfelves, and their ladies, did not difdain 
to learn the harper's craft; and Gower, in his " Confeffio Amantis," 
defcribes a fcene in which a princefs plays the harp at table. Appolinus 



and Se?itime?its. 1 6 5 



is dining in the hall of king Pentapolin, with the king and queen and 
their fair daughter, and all his lords, when, reminded by the fcene of the 
royal eftate from which he is fallen, he furrowed and took no meat ; 
therefore the king, fympathifing with him, bade his daughter take her 
harp and do all that fhe could to enliven that "furry man :" — 

And fhe to don her fader es hefie, 
Her harpe fette, and in the f eft e 
Upon a chair e ivhich the) fette, 
Her fel-ve next to this man fhe fette. 

Appolinus in turn takes the harp, and proves himfelf a wonderful 
proficient, and 

When he hath harped alle hh file, 

The kingh heft tofulflle, 

Aivaie goth difhe, aivaie goth cup, 

Doun goth the horde, the cloth ivas up, 

Thei rifen and gone out of the halle. 

The minftrels, or juugleurs, formed a very impurtant clafs uf fuciety in 
the middle ages, and no feftival was confidered as cumplete without their 
prefence. They travelled fingly ur in parties, nut unly from houfe to 
houfe, but from country to country, and they generally brought with 
them, to amufe and pleafe their hearers, the laft new fong, or the laft 
new tale. When any great feftival was announced, there was fure to be 
a general gathering of minftrels from all quarters, and as they potfelfed 
many methods of entertaining, for they joined the profeflion of mounte- 
bank, pofture-mafter, and conjurer with that uf mulic and ftory-telling, 
they were always welcome. No fooner, therefore, was the bufinefs of 
eating done, than the jougleur or jongleurs were brought forward, and 
fometimes, when the guefts were in a more ferious humour, the}' chanted 
the old romances of chivalry ; at other times they repeated fatirical 
poems, or party fongs, according to the feelings or humour of thole who 
were liftening tu them, ur tuld luve tales ur fcandalous anecdutes, or 
drolleries, accumpanying them with afting, and intermingling them with 
performances of variuus kinds. The hall was proverbially the place for 
mirth, and as merriment of a coarfe defcriptiun tinted the medieval tafte, i lu- 
xuries and performances of the jongleurs were often of an obfeene cha- 
racter, 



i66 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



rafter, even in the prefence of the ladies. In the illuminated manufcripts, 
the minftrel is moft commonly a harper, perhaps becaufe thefe illumina- 
tions are ufually found in the old romances of chivalry where the harper" 
generally a<5ts an important part, for the minftrels were not unfrequently 
employed in meifages and intrigues. In general 
the harp is wrapped in fome fort of drapery, as 
reprefented in our cut No. 117, taken from a MS. 
in the National Library of Paris, which was per- 
haps the bag in which the minftrel carried it, and 
may have been attached to the bottom of the 
inftrument. The accompanying fcene of min- 
ftrelfy is taken from a manufcript of the romance 
of Guyron le Courtois in the French National 
Library, No. 6976. 

The dinner was always accompanied by mufic, 
and itinerant minftrels, mountebanks, and performers of all defcriptions, 
were allowed free accefs to the hall to amufe the guefts by their per- 
formances. Thefe were intermixed with dancing and tumbling, and 





•^ fa irn o tr 

No. 1 1 8. Minftrelfy. 



often with exhibitions of a very grofs character, which, however, amid 
the loofenefs of mediaeval manners, appear to have excited no difguft. 
Thefe practices are curioufly illuftrated in fome of the mediaeval illu- 
minations. 



and Sentiments. 



i6 7 



ruinations. In the account of the death of John the Baptift, as given in 
the gofpels (Matthew xiv. 6, and Mark vi. 21), we are told, that at the 
feaft given by Herod on his birthday, his daughter Herodias came into 
the feaiting-hall, and (according to our Engliih verfion) danced before 
him and his guefts. The Latin vulgate has faltqffet, which is equivalent 
to the Engliih word ; but the mediaeval writers took the lady's perform- 
ances to be thofe of a regular wandering jougleur; and in two illu- 
minated manufcripts of the early part of the fourteenth century, in the 
Britiih Mufeunx, the is pictured as performing tricks very fimilar to 




No. 1 19. King Herod and his Daughter Herodias. 

thofe exhibited by the modern beggar-boys in our ttreets. In the riiii of 
thefe (No. 119), taken from MS. Reg. 2 B. vii., the princefi is (im- 
porting heri'elf upon her hands with her legs in the air, to the evident 
admiration of the king, though the guefts feem to be paying lefi 
attention to her feats of activity. In the fecond (No. 120), from the 
Harleian MS. No. 1527, the is reprelented in a iimilar polition, but 
more evidently making a fomerfault. She is here accompanied by a 
female attendant, who exprefles no lefs delight at ber Ihill than the king 
and his guefts. 

It 



i68 



HiJIory of Dome/lie Manners 



It would appear from various accounts that it was not, unlefs perhaps 
at an early period, the cuftom in France to fit long after dinner at table 
drinking wine, as it certainly was in England, where, no doubt, the 
practice was derived from the Anglo-Saxons. Numerous allufions might 
be pointed out, which fhow how much our Anglo-Saxon forefathers were 
addicted to this practice of fitting in their halls and drinking during the 
latter part of their day ; and it was then that they liftened to the 
minftrel's fong, told ftories of their own feats and adventures, and made 
proof of their powers in hard drinking. From fome of thefe allufions, 




No. 120. Herod and Hcrodias. 



which we have quoted in an earlier chapter, it is equally clear, that thefe 
drinking-bouts often ended in fanguinary, and not unfrequently in fatal, 
brawls. Such fcenes of difcord in the hall occur alfo in the early French 
metrical romances, but they take place ufually at the beginning of dinner, 
when the guefts are taking their places, or during the meal. In " Parife 
la Ducheffe," a fcene of this defcription occurs, in which the great feudal 
barons and knights fight with the provifions which had been ferved at 
the tables: "There," fays the poet, "you might fee them throw cheefes, 
and quartern-loaves, and great pieces of nefh, and great fieel knives" — 



Ld •veijjicz Jeter frontages et car tiers, 

Et granz pieces de char, et granz cotiauz deader — Roman de Parise, p. 173. 



In 



and Sentiments. 169 



In "Garin le Loherain" (vol. ii. p. 17), at a feaft at which the emperor 
and his emprefs were prefent, a right commences between the two great 
baronial parties who were their guefts, by a chief of one party ftriking 
one of the other party with a goblet ; the cooks are brought out or the 
kitchen to take part in it, with their peftles, ladles, and pot-hooks, led by 
duke Begon, who had feized a fpit, full of birds, as the w r eapon which 
came firft to hand ; and the conteft is not appealed until many are killed 
and wounded. 

The preceding remarks, of courfe, apply chiefly to the tables of the 
prince, the noble, and the wealthy gentleman, where alone this degree 
of profufion and of ceremony reigned ; and to thole of the monaftic 
houfes and of the higher clergy, where, if poffible, the luxury even of 
princes was overpaffed. The examples of clerical and monaftic extrava- 
gance in feafting are fo numerous, that I will not venture on this occafion 
to enter upon them any further. All recorded facls would lead us to 
conclude, that the ordinary courfe of living of the monks was much more 
luxurious than that of the clerical lords of the land, who, indeed, feem to 
have lived, on ordinary occasions, with fome degree of Simplicity, except 
that the great number of people who dined at their expenfe, required a 
very large quantity of provisions. Even men of rank, when dining alone, 
or haftily, are defcribed as being Satisfied with a very limited variety of 
food. In the romance of " Garin," when Rigaud, one of the barons of 
" Garin's" party, arrives at court with important news, and very hungry, 
the emprefs orders him to be ferved with a large veflel of wine (explained 
by a various reading to be equivalent to a pot), four loaves (the loaves 
appear ufually to have been final]), and a roafted peacock — 

On li aporte plain un barns de -vin, 

Et quatre pains, et un paon rofti. — Garin lc Loherain, vol. ii. p. 2H7. 

In a pane of painted glafs in the poffefiion of Dr. Henry Johnlbn, of 
Shrewsbury, of FlemHh workmanfhip of about the beginning of the 
fixteenth century, and reprefenting the ftory of the Prodigal Son, the 
Prodigal is feated al table with a party of dillblute women, feafting upon 
a pally. It is reproduced in our cut No. 121. They appear 1>> have 

x, only 



170 



Hiftory ofDomefiic Manners 



only one drinking-cup among them, but the wine is ferved from a very- 
rich goblet. We cannot, however, always judge the character of a feaft 
by the articles placed on the table by the mediaeval illuminators, for they 
were in the conftant habit of drawing things conventionally, and they 
feem to have found a difficulty — perhaps in confequence of their ignorance 




No. 121. Feafting on a Pafty. 



of perfpefitive — in reprefenting a crowded table. Our cut No. 122, 
on the following page, taken from MS. Reg. 10 E. iv., in which we 
recognize again our old friend the holy-water clerc, reprefents a table 
which is certainly very fparingly furnifhed, although the perfons feated 
at it feem to belong to a refpe&able clafs in fociety. Some cooked 
articles, perhaps meat, on a ftand, bread, a fingle knife to cut the pro- 
visions, and one pot, probably of ale, from which they feem to have drunk 
without the intervention of a glafs, form the whole fervice. 

We find allufions from time to time to the ftyle of living of the clafs 
in the country anfwering to our yeomanry, and of the l-ourgeoifie in the 
towns, which appears to have been fufficiently plain. In the romance of 
"Berte" (p. 78), when Berte finds fhelter at the houfe of the farmer 

Symon, 



and Sentiments. 



7* 



Symon, they give her, for refrefhment, a chicken and wine. In the 
fabliau of the " ViUi'in mire" (Barbazan, vol. iii. p. 3), the farmer, who 
had faved money, and become tolerably rich, had no fuch luxuries as 




A Dinner tete-a-tete. 



falmon or partridge, but his provifions confifted only of bread and wine, 
and fried eggs, and cheefe in abundance — 

N^orent pas faunton ne pertris, 
Pain et -vin orent, et oe'sfris, 
Et dufromage a grant plente. 

The franklin, in Chaucer, is put forward as an example of great 
liberality in the articles of provifions : — 



An houfeholdere, and that a gret, was he, 

Seynt Julian he ivas in his countre', 

His breed, his ale, ivas alivay after oon ; 

A bet t re envy tied man ivas noivher noon. 

Withoute bake mete ivas never his hous, 

Ofjieijj'ch andfif'eh, and that Jo plenty vous, 

It jncived in his hous of mete and drynke, 

Of all e deyntecs that men coivde thynke. 

Aftur the fondry jefouns of the yeer, 

He chaunged hem at mete and at toper. 

Ful many a fat partrich had he in mezve, 

And many a bran and many a luce in ftciue (li>li pond), 



Woo 



j 2 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



Woo ivas his cook, but if his fauce ivere 

Poynant andjcharp, and redy al his gere ; 

His table dormant in his halle airway 

Stood redy covered al the longe day. — Chaucer's Cant. Tales, 1. 341. 

A ftory in the celebrated collection of the Cent. Nouvelles Nouvelles 
(Nouv. 83), compofed foon after the middle of the fifteenth century, 
gives us fome notion of the ftore of provifions in the houfe of an ordinary 
burgher. A worthy and pious demoifelle — that is, a woman of the refpecl- 
able clafs of lourgeo'ijie, who was, in this cafe, a widow — invited a monk 
to dine with her, out of charity. They dined without other company, 
and were ferved by a ckambriere or maid-fervant, and a man-fervant or 
valet. The courfe of meat, which was firft placed on the table, confifted 
of poree, or foup, bacon, pork tripes, and a roafted ox's tongue. But the 
demoifelle had mifcalculated the voracity of her gueft, for, before the had 
made much progrefs in her poree, he had devoured everything on the 
table, and left nothing but empty difhes. On feeing this, his hoftefs 
ordered her fervants to put on the table a piece of good fait beef, and a 
large piece of choice mutton ; but he ate thefe alfo, to her no little 
aftonifhment, and {lie was obliged to fend for a fine ham, which had 
been cooked the day before, and which appears to have been all the meat 
left in the houfe. The monk devoured this, and left nothing but the 
bone. The courfe which would have followed the firfi: fervice was then 
laid on the table, confuting of a "very fine fat cheefe," and a difh well 
furnifhed with tarts, apples, and cheefe, which alfo quickly followed the 
meat. It appears from this ftory that the ordinary dinner of a refpecfable 
burgher confifted of a foup, and two or three plain diflies of meat, 
followed by cheefe, paftry, and fruit. An illumination, illuftrative of 
another tale in this collection, in the unique manufcript preferved in the 
Hunterian Library, at Glafgow, and copied in the annexed cut (No. 123), 
reprefents a dinner-table of an ordinary perfon of this clafs of fociety, 
which is not over largely furnifhed. We fee only bread in the middle, 
what appears to be intended for a ham at one end, and at the other a 
difh, perhaps of cakes or tarts. The lower claffes lived, of courfe, much 
more meanly than the others ; but we have fewer allufions to them in 

the 



and Sentiments. 



73 



the earlier mediaeval literature, as they were looked upon as a clafs hardly 
worth defcribing. This clafs was, no doubt, much more miterable in 
France than in England. A French moral poem of the fourteenth 




No. 123. A Frugal Repaji. 

century, entitled " Le Chemin de Pauvrete et de Bicheffe" reprefents the 
poor labourers as having no other food than bread, garlic, and fait, with 
water to drink : — 

Ny otjl grant nefi petit 
SZui ne preift grant appetit 
Enfainfec,enaux, e tenfel, 

Ne il ne mengoit riens en el, 

Mouton, buef, oye, ne poucin ; 

Et puis prcnoicnt le iacin, 

A deux maim, plain d'eaue, et bwvoicnt. 

As I have laid, the dreffer (dreffbir) or cupboard was the only impor- 
tant article of furniture in the hall, befides the tables and benches. Ii 
was a mere cupboard for the plate, and had generally fteps to enable the 
fervants to reach the articles that were placed high up in it, but it is 
rarely reprefented in pictured manufcripts before the fifteenth century, 
when the illuminators began to introduce more detail into their works. 

The 



1 74 Hi ft or y of Domeftic Manners 

The reader may form a notion of its contents, from the lift of the fervice 
of plate given by Edward I. of England to his daughter Margaret, after 
her marriage with the duke of Brabant ; it confifted of forty-fix filver 
cups with feet, for drinking ; fix wine pitchers, four ewers for water, four 
banns with gilt efcutcheons, fix great filver diihes for entremets ; one 
hundred and twenty fmaller difhes ; a hundred and twenty falts ; one 
gilt fait, for her own ufe ; feventy-two fpoons ; and three filver fpice- 
plates with a fpice-fpoon. 

The drefler, as well as all the furniture of the hall, was in the care of 
the groom ; it was his bufinefs to lay them out, and to take them away 
again. It appears to have been the ufual cuftom to take away the boards 
and treffels (forming the tables) at the fame time as the cloth. The 
company remained feated on the benches, and the drinking-cups were 
handed round to them. So tells us the " Boke of Curtafye" — 

Whenne they have ivajjben, and grace isfayde, 
Aivay he takes at a brayde (at once), 
Avoydes the horde into the fiore, 
Tafe aivay the treftles that been foftore. 



and Sentiments. 175 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MINSTREL. HIS POSITION UNDER THE ANGLO-SAXONS. THE 

NORMAN TROUVERE, MENESTREL, AND JOUGLEUR. THEIR CON- 
DITION. RUTEBEUF. DIFFERENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN USE 

AMONG THE MINSTRELS. THE BEVERLEY MINSTRELS. 

THE minftrel a6led fo very prominent a part in the household and 
domeflic arrangements during the middle ages, that a volume on 
the hiftory of domeftic manners would be incomplete without fome more 
detailed account of his profeflion than the ilight and occafional notices 
given in the preceding pages. 

Our information relating to the Anglo-Saxon minftrel is very im- 
perfect. He had two names — -fcop, which meant literally a " maker," and 
belonged probably to the primitive bard or poet ; and glig-man, or gleo- 
man, the modern gleeman, which fignifies literally a man who furniihed 
joy or pleafure, and appears to have had a more compreheniive appli- 
cation, which included all profeffional performers for other people's 
amufement. In Beowulf (1. 180), the "long of the bard" (fang /copes) 
is accompanied by the found of the harp [hearpan fweg) ; and it is 
probable that the harp was the fpecial innrument of the old Saxon bard, 
who chanted the mythic and heroic poems of the race. The gleemcn 
played on a variety of inftruments, and they alio exhibited a variety of 
other performances for the amufement of the hearers or fpectators. In 
our engraving from an Anglo-Saxon illumination (p. 37), one of the 
gleemen is toiling knives and balls, which feems to have been conlidered 
a favourite exhibition of ikill down to a much later period. The early 
Englifh Rule of Nuns (printed by the Camden Society) lavs of the 
wrathful man, that " he ikirmilhes before the devil with knives, ami he 
is his knife-toller, and plays with fwords, and balances them upon his 

tongue 



176 Hifiory of Domejiic Manners 

tongue by the fharp point." In the Life of Hereward, the gleeman 
(whofe name is there tranflated by joculator) is reprefented as conciliating 
the favour of the new Norman lords by mimicking the unrefined manners 
of the Saxons, and throwing upon them indecent jefts and reproaches. 
But, in the later Anglo-Saxon period at leaft, the words fcop and gleoman 
appear to have been confidered as equivalent ; for, in another hall-fcene 
in Beowulf, where the fcop performs his craft, we are told that — 

Ledft ivas ajungen, The lay ivasjung, 

gleomannes gyd, the gleeman s recital, 

gamen eft aftah, pajlime began again, 

beorhtode benc-ftveg. tlie bench-noife became loud. — Beowulf, 1. 2323. 

There is here evidently an intimation of merrier fongs than thofe fung 
by the fcop, and whatever his performances were, they drew a louder 
welcome. And in a fragment of another romance which has come down 
to us, the gleeman Widfeth bears witnefs to the wandering character of 
his clafs, and enumerates in a long lift the various courts of different 
chiefs and peoples which he had vifited. We learn, alio, that among 
the Anglo-Saxons there were gleemen attached to the courts or houfe- 
holds of the kings and great chieftains. Under Edward the Confeftbr, 
as we learn from the Domefday Survey, Berdic, the king's joculator, 
pofleiTed three villas in Gloucefterlhire. 

On the continent, when we firft become acquainted with the hiftory 
of the popular literature, we find the minftrels, the reprefentatives of the 
ancient bards, appearing as the compofers and chanters of the poems 
which told the ftories of the old heroes of romance, and they feem alio 
to have been accompanied ufually with the harp, or with fome other 
ftringed inftrument. They fpeak of themfelves, in thefe poems, as 
wandering about from caftle to caftle, wherever any feafting was going 
on, as being everywhere welcome, and as depending upon the liberality 
either of the lord of the feaft, or of the guefts, for their living. Occa- 
fional complaints would lead us to fuppofe that this liberality was not 
always great, and the poems themfelves contain formules of begging 
appeals, which are not very dignified cr delicate. Thus, in the romance 
of" Gui de Bourgogne," the minftrel interrupts his narrative, to inform his 

hearers 



and Sentiments. 



177 



hearers that " Whoever willies to hear any more of this poem, muft 
make hafte to open his purfe, for it is now high time that he give me 
fomething" — 

Qui or -voldra chancon o't'r et efcouter, 
Si -voift ifnelemcnt fa bourffe dcsfermer, 
Qjfil eft hui mes bien tans quil me dole doner. — f!ui rie Bnurgngne, 1. 4136. 

In like manner, in the romance of " Huon de Bordeaux," the minftrel, 
after having recited nearly five thoufand lines, makes his excufe for 
difcontinuing until another day. He reminds his auditors that it is near 
veipers, and that he is weary, and invites them to return next day after 
dinner, begging each of them to bring with him a maille, or halfpenny, 
and complaining of the meannefs of thofe who were accuftomed to give 
lb fmall a coin as the poitivine " to the courteous minftrel." The 
minftrel feems to have calculated that this hint might not be fufficient, 
and that they would require being reminded of it, for, after fome two or 
three hundred lines of the next day's recital, he introduces another 
formule of appeal to the purfes of his hearers. "Take notice," he goes 
on to fay, "as may God give me health, I will immediately put a Hop to 
my fong ; . . . . and I at once excommunicate all thofe who lliall not 
vilit their purfes in order to give fomething to my wife" — 

Mais fade's bien, fe Dix me doi rift f ante, 
Ma can con toft -vous ferai define r ; 
Tons chiaus cfcumenie . . . 



S^ui niront a lour bourfcs pour ma feme donner. — Iluon do Bordeaux, 1. 5482. 

Thefe minftrels, too, difplay great jealoufy of one another, and efpecially 
of what they term the new minftrels, exclaiming againfl the decadence 
of the profeffion. 

It would appear, indeed, that thefe French minftrels, the poets by 
profeflion, who now become known to us by the name of trouvires, or 
inventors (in the language of the fouth of France, trobadors), held a 
pofition towards the jongleurs, or joglcurs* (from the Latin joculatores, 

* The old literary antiquaries, through mistaking the u of the manuscripts for 
an n, and not attending to the derivation, have < reated a meaningless word— jongleur — 
which never existed, and ought now to be entirely abandoned. 

a a and 



178 Hi ft or y of Domefiic Maimers 

and this again from jocus, game), which the Anglo-Saxon fcop held 
towards the gleeman. Though the mafs of the minftrels did get their 
living as itinerant fongfters, they might be refpeclable, and fometimes 
there was a man of high rank who became a minftrel for his pleafure ; 
but the jougleurs, as a body, belonged to the loweft and moft degraded 
clafs of mediaeval fociety, that of the ribalds or letchers, and the more 
refpectable minftrels of former days were probably falling gradually into 
their ranks. It was the clafs which abandoned itfelf without referve to 
the mere amufement and pleafure of the ariftocracy, and it feems to have 
been greatly increafed by the Crufades, when the jougleurs of the weft 
were brought into relations with thoie of the eaft, and learnt a multitude 
of new ways of exciting attention and making mirth, of which they were 
previoully ignorant. The jougleurs had now become, in addition to their 
older accompliihments, magicians and conjurers, and wonderfully ikilled 
in every deicription of fleight of hand, and it is from thefe qualities that 
we have derived the modern fignification of the word juggler. They 
had alio adopted the profeffion of the eaftern ftory-tellers, as well as 
their ftories, which, however, they turned into verfe 5 and they brought 
into the weft many other exhibitions which did not tend to raife the 
ftandard of weftern morals. 

The character of the minftrels, or jougleurs, their wandering life, and 
the eafe with which they were admitted everywhere, caufed them to be 
employed extenftvely as fpies, and as bearers of fecret news, and led 
people to adopt the difguife of a minftrel, as one which enabled them to 
pafs through difficulties unobferved and unchallenged. In the ftory of 
Euftace the monk, when Euftace fought to efcape from England, to 
avoid the purfuit of king John, he took a fiddle and a bow (a fiddleftick), 
and dreffed himfelf as a minftrel, and in this garb he arrived at the coaft, 
and, finding a merchant ready to fail, entered the fhip with him. But 
the fteerfman, who did not recognife the minftrel as one of the paifengers, 
ordered him oat. Euftace expoftulated, reprefented that he was a min- 
ftrel, and, after fome difpute, the fteerfman, who feems to have had fome 
fufpicions either of his difguife or of his ikill, concluded by putting the 
queftion, " At all events, if thou knoweft any fong, friend, let us have it." 

The 



and Sentiments. 1 79 



The monk was not fkilled in ringing, but he replied boldly, "■ Know 

I one ? Yea ! of Agoulant, and Aymon, or of Blonchadin, or of Florence 
of Rome (thefe were all early metrical romances) ; there is not a long in 
the whole world but I know it. I ihould be delighted, no doubt, to 
afford you amufementj but, in truth, the fea frightens me lb much at 
preferit, that I could not ling a fong worth hearing." He was allowed 
to pafs. Some of thofe who adopted the difguife of the jongleur were 
better able to fuftain it, and minftrelfy became conlidercd as a polite 
accomplilhment, perhaps partly on account of its utility. There is, in 
the hiftory of the Fitz-Warines, a remarkable character of this delcription 
named John de Raunpaygne. Fulke Fitz-Warine had formed a delign 
againft his great enemy, Moris Fitz-Roger, and he eftablilhed himfelf, 
with his fellow outlaws, in the foreft near Whittington, in Shroplhire, to 
watch him. Fulke then called to him John de Raunpaygne. "John," 
faid he, "you know enough of minftrelfy and joglery ; dare you go to 
Whittington, and play before Moris Fitz-Roger, and fpy how things are 
going on?" " Yea," faid John. He crulhed a herb, and put it in his 
mouth, and his face began immediately to fwell, and became lb dif- 
coloured, that his own companions hardly knew him ; and he drefll-d 
himfelf in poor clothes, and " took his box with his inftruments of joglery 
and a great ftalf in his hand;" and thus he went to Whittington, and 
prefented himfelf at the cattle, and faid that he was a jogeleur. The 
porter carried him to Sir Moris, who received him well, inquired in the 
firft place for news, and receiving intelligence which pleated him (it was 
delignedly falfe), he gave the minftrel a valuable lilver cup as a reward. 
Now, " John de Raunpaygne was very ill-favoured in face and body, ami 
on this account the ribalds of the houfehold made game of him, ami 
treated him roughly, and pulled him by his hair and by his feet. John 
railed his ftaff, and ftruck a ribald on the head, that his brain Hew into 
the middle of the place. 'Wretched ribald,' laid the lord, 'what hali 
thou doner' ' Sir,' laid he, 'for God's mercy, I cannol help it ; 1 have 
a difeafe which is very grievous, which you may fee by my fwollen face. 
And this difeafe takes entire poffeffion of me at certain hours of the day, 
when I have no power to govern myfelf.' Moris (wore a great oath, 

that 



i8o 



Hi/lory of Domejlic Manners 



that if it were not for the news he had brought, he would have his head 
cut off immediately. The jogeleur haftened his departure, for the time 
he remained there feemed very long." The refult of this adventure was 
the attack upon and flaughter of Moris Fitz-Roger by Fulk Fitz-Warine. 
Some time after this, Fulk Fitz-Warine, having recovered his caftle of 
Whittington, was lamenting over the lofs of his friend, Sir Audulf de 
Bracy, who had fallen into the hands of king John's emiffaries, and was 
a prifoner in Shrewfbury caftle, where king John had come to make his 
temporary refidence, and again aiked the aid of John de Raunpaygne, 
who promifed to make a viut to the king. "John de Raunpaygne knew 
enough of tabor, harp, fiddle, citole, and joglery ; and he attired himfelf 
very richly, like an earl or baron, and he caufed his hair and ali his body 
to be entirely dyed as black as jet, lb that nothing was white except his 
teeth. And he hung round his neck a very handfome tabor, and then, 
mounting a handfome palfrey, rode through the town of Shrewfbury to 
the gate of the caftle ; and by many a one was he looked at. John came 
before the king, and placed himfelf on his knees, and faluted the king 
very courteoully. The king returned his falutation, and alked him 
whence he came. ' Sire,' faid he, 'lam an Ethiopian minftrel, born in 
Ethiopia.' Said the king, 'Are all the people in your land of your 
colour?' ' Yea, my lord, man and woman.' .... John, during the 
day, made great minftrelfy of tabor and other inftruments. When the 
king was gone to bed, Sir Henry de Audeley fent for the black minftrel, 
and led him into his chamber. And they made great melody ; and when 
Sir Henry had drunk well, then he faid to a valet, ' Go and fetch Sir 
Audulf de Bracy, whom the king will put to death to-morrow 3 for he 
lhall have a good night of it before his death.' The valet foon brought 
Sir Audulf into the chamber. Then they talked and played. John 
commenced a fong which Sir Audulf ufed to ling ; Sir Audulf railed his 
head, looked at him full in the face, and with great difficulty recognifed 
him. Sir Henry aiked for fome drink 5 John was very ferviceable, 
jumped nimbly on his feet, and ferved the cup before them all. John 
was ily, he threw a powder into the cup, which nobody perceived, for he 
was a good jogeleur, and all who drunk became lb fleepy that, foon after 

drinking:, 



and Sentiments. 1 3 1 



drinking, they lay down and fell alleep. John de Raunpaygne and 
Sir Andulf de Bracy took the opportunity for making their efcape. We 
have here a myflerious intimation of the fa£t that the minftrel was 
employed alio in dark deeds of poiibning. Still later on in the ftory of 
Fulk Fitz-Warine, the hero himfelf goes to a tournament in France in 
difguife, and John de Raunpaygne relumes his old character of a jongleur. 
"John," fays the narrative, "was very richly attired, and well mounted, 
and he had a very rich tabor, and he ftruck the tabor at the entry to 
the lifts, that the hills and valleys rebounded, and the horfes became 
joyful." 

All thefe anecdotes reveal to us minftrels who were perfectly free, 
and wandered from place to place at will ; but there were others who 
were retained by and in the regular employ of individuals. The king 
had his minftrels, and fo moft of the barons had their houfehold min- 
ftrels. In one of the mediseval Latin ftories, current in this country 
probably as early as the thirteenth century, we are told that a jougleur 
(mimus he is called in the Latin, a word ufed at this time as fynonymous 
with joculator) prefented himfelf at the gate of a certain lord to enter 
the hall and eat (for the table in thofe days was rarely refufed to a min- 
ftrel), but he was flopped by the porter, who alked him to what lord he 
was attached, evidently thinking, as was thought fome three centuries 
later, that the treatment merited by the fervant depended on the quality 
of the mailer. The minftrel replied that his mafter was God. When 
the porter communicated this refponfe to his churlilh lord, or equally 
churliih fteward, they replied that if he had no other lord, he fhould not 
be admitted there. When the jougleur heard this, he laid that he was 
the devil's own fervant 5 whereupon he was received joyfully, "becaufe 
he was a good fellow" (quia bonus focius era/). The records of the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries contain many entries of payments to 
the king's minftrels, and the names of fome of them are preferved. On 
great feftivals at the king's court, minftrels came to feck employment 
from every part of the world which acknowledged the reign of feudalifm. 
Four hundred and twenty-fix minftrels were patent at the marriage 
feftivities of the princefs Margaret, daughter of Edward I.; and feveral 

hundred 



Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 



hundred played before the fame monarch at the Whitfuntide of 1306. 
This affluence of minftrels gave rife to the practice of building a large 
muhc-gallery at one end of the mediaeval hall, which feems to have been 
introduced in the fourteenth century. At this time minftrels were fome- 
times employed for very lingular purpofes, fuch as for foothing the king 
when undergoing a difagreeable operation. We learn from the ward- 
robe accounts that, in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Edward I. 
(a.d. 1297) twenty fhillings, or about fifteen pounds in modern money, 
was given to the minftrel of Sir John Maltravers as a reward for perform- 
ing before the king while he was bled. 

The king's minftrels, and thofe of the great lords, were very well 
paid, but the great mafs of the profeflion, who depended only on what 
they obtained in gifts at each particular feaft, which they reckleflly 
fquandered away as foon as they got it, lived a hard as it was a vagabond 
life. The king's minftrels, in the fourteenth century in England, received 
from fixpence to fevenpence halfpenny a day, that is from feven {hillings 
and fixpence to nine fhillings and fourpence halfpenny, during the whole 
year. On the other hand, Colin Mufet, one of the beft of the French 
fong-writers of the thirteenth century, complains of the want of liberality 
fhown to him by the great baron before whom he had played on the viol 
in his hoftel, and who had given him nothing, not even his wages : — 

Sire quens, fai mele 
De-vant -vos en -vojire oflcl ; 
Si ne rna've% riens donns, 
Ne men gages acquiter. 

And he laments that he is obliged to go home in poverty, becaufe his 
wife always received him ill when he returned to her with an empty 
purfe, whereas, when he carried back his malle well fluffed, he was 
covered with careffes by his whole family. The French poet Rutebeuf, 
whofe works have been collected and publifhed by M. Jubinal, may be 
considered as the type of the better clafs of minftrels at this period, and 
he has become an object of efpecial intereft to us in confequence of the 
number of his fhorter effufions which defcribe his own polition in life. 

The 



and Sentiments. i 8 3 



The firft piece in the collection has for its fubject his own poverty. He 
complains of being reduced to fuch diftrefs, that he had been obliged for 
fome time to live upon the generality of his friends ; that people no 
longer Ihowed any liberality to poor minftrels; that he was perifhing 
with cold and hunger ; and that he had no other bed but the bare ftraw. 
In another poem, entitled Rutebeuf's Marriage, he informs us that his 
privations were made more painful by the circumftance of his having a 
fhrew for his wife. In a third he laments over the lofs of the light of 
his right eye, and informs us that, among other misfortunes, his wife had 
juft been delivered of a child, and his horfe had broke its leg, lb that, 
while he had no means of fupporting a nurfe for the former, the latter 
accident had deprived him of the power of going to any diftance to exer- 
cife his minftrelfy craft. Rutebeuf repeats his laments on his extreme 
poverty in feveral other pieces, and they have an echo in thole of other 
minftrels of his age. We find, in fact, in the verfe-writers of the latter 
half of the thirteenth century, and in fome of thofe of the fourteenth, 
a general complaint of the neglect of the minftrels, and of the degeneracy 
of minftrelfy. In a poem againft the growing tafte for the tabor, printed 
in M. Jubinal's volume, entitled " Jougleurs et Trouveres," the low ftate 
into which the minftrels' art had fallen is afcribed to a growing love for 
inftruments of an undignified character, fuch as the tabor, which is laid 
to have been brought to us from the Arabs, and the pipe. If an ignorant 
ihepherd from the field, fays the writer of this poem, but play on the tabor 
and pipe, he becomes more popular than the man who plays on the viol 
ever fo well — 

S^uar J' 'uns bergiers de chain tabore ct chahmth, 

Pius tojl eji apde que cil qui bicn vide. 

Everybody followed the tabor, he fays, and the good minftrels were no 
longer in vogue, though their fiddles were fo much fnperior to the flutes, 
and flajolets (flajols), and tabors of the others. He conloles himfelf, 
however, with the reflection that the holy Virgin Mary never Loved the 
tabor, and that no fuch vulgar inftrument was admitted al her wedding; 
while (he had in various ways fliown her favour i<> the jougleurs. " 1 
pray God," our minftrel continues, " thai he will fend mifchief to him 

w ho 



1 84 



Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 



who firft made a tabor, for it is an inftrument which ought to pleafe 

nobody. No rich man ought to love the found of a tabor, which is bad 

for people's heads ; for, if ftretched tight, and ftruck hard, it may be 
heard at half a league's diftance :"— 



Qui primes fift tabor , Diex li en-voit contraire ! 
Que e'eftrument i eft qu 1 a nului ne doit plaire, 

Nus riches horn ne doit Jon de tabour amcr. 
Quant il eft bien tendu et on le vent hurter, 
De demie grant lieue le puet-on efcouter ; 
Ci a trap mawues fon porfon chief comforter . 

The mufical inftruments ufed by the mediaeval gleemen and min- 
ftrels form in themfelves a not uninterefting fubject. Thofe enumerated 
in the Anglo-Saxon vocabularies are the harp (hearpe, cithara), the 
lyme, or trumpet, the pipe, "or whiffle," the 
fithele, viol, or fiddle, the horn, and the trumpet, 
the latter of which was called in Anglo-Saxon 
truth and fcerga. To thefe we muft certainly add 
a few others, for the drum or tabor feems to have 
been in ufe among* them under fome form, as 
well as the cymbal, hand-bells, lyre ftruck by a 
plectrum, and the organ, which latter was already 
the favourite church inftrument. A portable organ 
was in ufe in the middle ages, of which we give a 
figure (No. 124), from a manufcript in the Britilh 
Mufeum of the earlier part of the fourteenth cen- 
tury (MS. Reg. 14 E. iii.). This hand-organ was 
known alfo by the name of the dulcimer. It occurs 
again in the following group (No. 12,5), taken from 
a manufcript of the fourteenth century in the Britilh 
Mufeum (MS. Addit. No. 10,293), where the per- 
former on the dulcimer is accompanied by two other minftrels, one play- 
ing on the bagpipe, the other on the viol or fiddle. 

Each of the figures in this group is drefled in a coftume fo dif- 
ferent from the others that one might almoft fuppofe them engaged 




No. 124. An Organ Player. 



and Sentiments. 



85 



in a malquerade 3 and they leem to difcountenance the notion that the 
minftrels were in the habit of wearing any drels peculiar to their clais. 




No. 125. A Group of Minftrels. 

In this relpe£t, their teftimony feems to be confirmed by the circumftance 
that minftrels are mentioned fometimes as wearing the drefles which 




No. 126. David and his Muftcians. 

have been given them, among other gilts, as a reward for their perform- 
ances. The illuminated letter here introduced (No. 126), which is taken 
b is from 



i86 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



from a manufcript of the thirteenth century in the Britifh Mufeum 
(MS. Harl. No. 5102), reprefents king David tinging his pfalms to the 
harp, while three muficians accompany him. The firft, who fits befide 
him, is playing on the fhalm or pfaltery, which is frequently figured in 
the illuminations of manufcripts. One of the two upper figures is playing 
on bells, which alfo is a defcription of mufic often reprefented in the 
illuminations of different periods 3 and the other is blowing the horn. 
Thefe are all inftruments of folemn and ecclefiaftical mufic. Jn the next 
cut (No. 127), taken from a manufcript of the fourteenth century (MS. 
Reg. 2 B. vii.), the fhalm is placed in the hands of a nun, while a friar is 
performing on a rather Angularly fhaped cittern, or lute. 

In other manufcripts we find the ordinary mufical inftruments placed 




27. Muficians of the Cloifter. 



in the hands of the angels ; as in the early fourteenth century MS. Reg. 
2 B. vii v in a reprefentation (copied in our cut No. 128) of the creation 
with the morning ftars finging together, and all the fons of God fhouting 
for joy, an angelic choir are making melody on the trumpet, fiddle, 
cittern, fhalm, and harp. There is another choir of angels at p. 168 of 
the fame MS., with two citterns and two fhalms, a fiddle and a trumpet. 
Similar reprefentations occur in the choirs of churches. In the boffes of 
the ceiling of Tewkefbury abbey church we fee angels playing the 
cittern (with a plectrum), the harp (with its cover feen enveloping the 
lower half of the inftrument), and the cymbals. In the choir of Lincoln 

cathedral, 



and Sentiments. 



s? 




No. 128. The Angelic Choir. 

arcades, and which have given to it the name of the angel choir, are 
playing inftruments, fuch as the trumpet, double pipe, pipe and tabret, dul- 
cimer, viol and harp, as if to reprefent the heavenly choir 
attuning their praifes in harmony with the human choir 
below: — "therefore with angels and archangels, and with 
all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy 
glorious name." We will introduce here another drawing 
of an angelic minftrel (No. 129), playing a fhalm, from 
the Royal MS. 14 E. iii. ; others occur at folio 1 of the 
fame MS. It has been fuggefted that the band of village 
muficians with flute, violin, clarionet, and baff-viol, whom 
mod of us have feen occupying the ringing-gallery of fome 
country church, are probably not inaccurate reprefenta- 
tives of the band of minftrels who occupied the rood-lofts 
in mediaeval times. In this period of the middle ages, 
indeed, mufic feems to have had a great charm for all 
clafles of fociety, and each clafs appears in turn in the 
minftrel character in the illuminations of the manufcripts. 
Even the fhepherds, throughout the middle ages, feem 
to have been mufical, like the fwains of Theocritus or 
Virgil; for we constantly find them reprefented playing 
upon inftruments; and in confirmation we give a couple of goatnei 

(No. 




(No. 130), from MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 83, of early fourteenth century 
date : they are playing on the pipe and horn. But, betides thefe inftru- 





No. 130. A Group of Shepherds. 



No. 131. A Bagpiper. 




ments, the bagpipe was alfo a ruftic inftrument : there is a fhepherd 
playing upon one on folio 112 of the fame MS. 
(given in our cut No. 131) : and again, in the early 
fourteenth century MS. Reg. 2 B. vi., on the 
reverfe of folio 8, is a group of fhepherds, one of 
whom plays a fmall pipe, and another the bagpipes. 
Chaucer (in the " Houfe of Fame") mentions — 

Pipes made of grene come, 
As han thife lytel herde gromes, 
That kepen beftis in the bromes. 

It is curious to find that even at fo late a period as 

No. 132. The Lady and the reign of queen Mary, they Hill officiated at 

weddings and other merrymakings in their villages, 

and even fo me times excited the jealoufy of the profeffors of the joyous 

fcience, as we have feen in the early French poem againft 

the taborers. 

I give next (cut No. 132) a reprefentation of a female 
minftrel playing the tambourine ; it is alfo taken from a MS. 
of the fourteenth century (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 182). 

The earlieft inftance yet met with of the modern- 
fhaped drum is contained in the Coronation Book of 
Richard II., preferved in the Chapter-houfe, Weftminfier, and is repre- 

fented 




and Sentiments. 



189 



fented in the annexed cut (No. 133). This mediaeval drummer is clearly- 
intended to be playing on two drums at once ; and, in confidering their 
forms and pofition, we muft make fome allowance for the mediaeval 
negleft of perfpective. 

In the mediaeval vocabularies we find feveral lifts of mufical inftru- 
ments then beft known. Thus John de Garlande, in the middle of the 
thirteenth century, enumerates, as the minftrels who were to be feen in 
the houfes of the wealthy, individuals who performed on the inftruments 
which he terms in Latin, lyra (meaning the harp), tibia (the flute), cornu 
(the horn), vidula (the fiddle), Jiftru m (the drum), giga (the gittern), 
Jymphonia (a fymphony), pfalterium (the pfaltery), chorus, citola (the 




34. Bloving the Trumpet and Playing on the Cymbals. 



cittern), tympanum (the tabor), and cymbala (cymbals). The Englilh glos- 
faries of the fifteenth century add to thefe the trumpet, the ribibe (a fort of 
fiddle), organs, and the crowd. The forms of thefe inftruments of various 
periods will be found in the illuftrations which have been given in the 
courfe of the prefent chapter. It will be well perhaps to enumerate again 
the moft common j they are the harp, fiddle, cittern or lute, hand-organ 
or dulcimer, the fhalm or pfaltery, the pipe and tabor, pipes of various 
fizes played like clarionets, but called flutes, the double pipe, hand-bells, 
trumpets and horns, bagpipes, tambourine, tabret, drum, and cymbals. We 
give two further groups of figures in illuftration of thefe inftruments, both 
taken from the Royal MS. fo often quoted, 2 B. vii. In the hist (No. [34) 

we 



190 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



have a boy (apparently) playing the cymbals 3 and in the fecond (No. 




No. 135. The Dulcimer and Double Flute. 

135) an example of the double flute, which we have already feen in 




No. 136. Mujical Inftruments. 

Anglo-Saxon manufcripts (fee before, pp. 35 and 65), and which appears to 

have 



and Sentiments. 1 9 



have been one of the mufical inftruments borrowed immediately from the 
Romans. In conclufion of this fubjecl we give a group of mufical inftru- 
ments (No. 136) from one of the illuftrations of the celebrated book 
entitled "DerWeife Konig," a work of the clofe of the fifteenth century. 
The early commentator on the Di6tionarius, or Vocabulary, of John 
de Garlande, calls the mufical inftruments 'uiftrumenta leccatorum, (inftru- 
ments of the letchers or ribalds), and I have already ftated that the 
minftrels, or jougleurs, were confidered as belonging generally to that 
degraded clafs of fociety. In the vocabularies of the fifteenth century, 
they are generally claffed under the head of reprehenfihle or difgracetul 
profellions, along with ribalds, heretics, harlots, and fo forth. It was the 
fame character which led them, a little later, to be profcribed in acts of 
parliament, under the titles of rogues and vagabonds. In the older 
poetry, too, they are often joined with difgraceful epithets. There is a 
curious early metrical ftory, or fabliau, which was made, no doubt, to be 
recited by the minftrels themfelves, although it throws ridicule on their 
profeliion ; it is entitled Les deux Troveors rilauz, " the two ribald trou- 
veres," and confifts in a ludicrous difpute between them on their qualifi- 
cations as minftrels. My readers muft not fuppofe that at this time the 
reciters of poetry were a different or better clafs than thofe who per- 
formed jugglery and low buffoonery — for, in this poem, either of the two 
claimants to fuperiority boafts of his ikill equally in polfelling in his 
memory completely, and being able to recite well, the early Chanfons de 
Gefte, or Carlovingian romances, the later romances of chivalry, and 
the fabliaus or metrical ftories; in playing upon the moft faihionable 
mufical inftruments, fuch as the citole, the fiddle, and the gigue (gittern) ; 
in performing extraordinary feats and in fleight of hand ; and even in 
making chaplets of flowers, and in acting as a fpy or as a go-between in 
love intrigues. No doubt there were minftrels who kept themfelves 
more refpectable, but they were exceptions to the general character of 
the clafs, and were chiefly men in the fervice of the king or of tin- greal 
barons. There appears alfo to have been, for a long time, a continued 
attempt to raife minftrelfy to a refpectable pofition, and oul of this 
attempt arofe, in different places, companies and guilds. Of thefe, the 

in. ft 



192 Hiftory of Domejtic Manners 

raoft remarkable of which we have any knowledge in this country, was 
the ancient fraternity of minftrels of Beverley, in Yorkshire. "When this 
company originated is not known ; but it was of fome confideration and 
wealth in the reign of Henry VI., when the church of St. Mary's, in 
that town, was built ; for the minftrels gave a pillar to it, on the capital 
of which a band of minftrels were fculptured. The cut below (No. 137) 




No. 137. The Minfir eh of Beverley. 

is copied from the engraving of this group, given in Carter's "Ancient 
Painting and Sculpture." The oldeft exifling document of the fraternity 
is a copy of laws of the time of Philip and Mary, fimilar to thofe by 
which all trade guilds were governed : their officers were an alderman 
and two ftewards or feers (i. e. fearchers) ; and the only items in their 
laws which throw any light upon the hiftory or condition of the minftrels 
are — one which requires that they fhould not take " any new brother 
except he be mynftrell to fome man of honour or worihip, or waite of 
fome towne corporate or other ancient town, or elfe of fuch honeftye and 
conyng (knoivledge) as ihall be thought laudable and pleafant to the 
hearers there 5" and another, to the effect that " no mylner, ihepherd, or 
of other occupation, or hufbandman, or huibandman fervant, playing 
upon pype or other inftrument, fhall fue (follow) any wedding, or other 
thing that pertaineth to the faid fcience, except in his own pariih." 
Inftitutions like thefe, however, had little effect in counteracting the 

natural 



and Sentiments. 1 9 3 



natural decline of minftrelfy, for the ftate of fociety in which it exifted 
was palling away. It would be curious to trace the changes in its hiftory 
by the inllruments which became efpecially characferiftic of the popular 
jougleur. The harp had given way to the fiddle, and already, towards 
the end of the thirteenth century, the fiddle was yielding its place to the 
tabor. In the Anglo-Norman romance of Horn, of the thirteenth 
century, we are told of a ribald "who goes to marriages to play on the 
tabor " — 

A li piert quil eft las un lechur 

Ki a ces nocces went pur jucr od tabur ; 

and the curious fabliau of the king of England and the jougleur of Ely 
defcribes the latter as carrying his tabor fwung to his neck — 



Entour Jon col porta Joun tabour. 



194 Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



CHAPTER X. 

AMUSEMENTS AFTER DINNER. GAMBLING. THE GAME OF CHESS. 

ITS HISTORY. DICE. TABLES. DRAUGHTS. 

THE dinner hour, even among the higheft ranks of fociety, was, as 
I have ftated, early in the forenoon ; and, except in the cafe of 
great feafts, it appears not to have been cuftomary to fit long after dinner. 
Thus a great part of the day was left on people's hands, to fill up with 
fome defcription of amufement or occupation. After the dinner was taken 
away, and the ceremony of wafhing had been gone through, the wine 
cup appears to have been at leaf! once paffed round, before they all 
role from table. The Camden Society has recently publifhed an early 
French metrical romance (" Blonde of Oxford," by Philippe de Reimes), 
which gives us a very interefting picture of the manners of the thirteenth 
century. Jean of Dammartin is reprefented as the fon of a noble family 
in France, who comes to England to feek his fortune, and enters the 
fervice of an earl of Oxford, as one of the efquires in his houfehold. 
There his duty is to attend upon the earl's daughter, the lady Blonde, 
and to ferve her at tables "After the meal, they wafh their hands and 
then go to play, as each likes befl, either in forefts or on rivers (i.e. hunt- 
ing or hawking), or in amufements of other kinds. Jean goes to which 
of them he likes, and, when he returns, he often goes to play in the 
chambers of the countefs, with the ladies, who oblige him to teach them 
French." Jean does his beft to pleafe them, for which he was qualified 
by his education, " For he was very well acquainted with chamber 
games, fuch as chefs, tables, and dice, with which he entertains his 

damfel 



and Sentiments. 195 



damfel (Blonde) ; he often fays 'check' and ' mate' to her, and he taught 
her to play many a game :" — 

De jus de cambrcs feut ajje's, 

D'ejchcs, de tables, et de de's, 

Dont Ufa damoifele ejbat ; 

Sou-vent li diji cjchek et mat ,• 

De maint jeu a juer Paprifl. — Blonde of Oxford, 1. Z'M. 

This is a correft picture of the ufual occupations of the after-part of 
the day among the fuperior claffes of fociety in the feudal ages 5 and 
fcenes in accordance with it are often found in the illuminations of the 
mediaeval manufcripts. One of thefe is reprefented in the engraving 
(No. 138) on the following page, taken from a manufcript of the 
fifteenth century, containing the romance of the " Quatre Fils d'Aymon," 
and preferved in the Library of the Arfenal, in Paris. In the chamber 
in front a nobleman and one of the great ladies of his houfehold are 
engaged at chefs, while in the background we fee other ladies enjoying 
themfelves in the garden, which is ihown to us with its fummer-houfe 
and its flower-beds furrounded with fences of lattice-work. It may be 
remarked, that the attention of the cheff-players is withdrawn fuddenly 
from their game by the entrance of an armed knight, who appears in 
another compartment of the illumination in the manufcript. 

Of the chamber games enumerated in the foregoing extract from the 
romance of " Blonde of Oxford," that of chefs was no doubt looked upon 
as by far the mod; diftinguifhed. To play well at chefs was confiden d as 
a very important part of an ariftocratic education. Thus, in the " Chanfon 
de Gefte" (metrical romance) of Parife la Duchefle, the ion of the 
heroine, who was brought up by the king in his palace, had no fooner 
reached his fifteenth year, than "he was taught firll his letters, until he 
had made fufficient progrefs in them, and then he learnt to play at tables 
and chefs," and learnt thefe games lb well, " that no man in this world 
was able to mate him : " — 

Qjiant Panfcs ot x-v. anz et complix et pajfe-z, 

Premiers aprljl a let t res, tant quil en Jot ajjez ; 

Puis aprijl-il as tables et a efc/ias joier, 

It na ome an ccft mondc qui Pen pctijl mater. — Parlse la Ducbesse, p. 86. 

In 



196 



Hiftory of Domeftic Manners 



In this numerous cycle of romances, fcenes in which kings and princes, 
as well as nobles, are reprefented as occupying their leifure with the game 
of chefs, occur very frequently, and fometimes the game forms an impor- 




No. 13S. A Mediaval after-dinner Scene. 



tant incident in the ftory. In " Garin le Loherain," a meffenger hurries 
to Bordeaux, and finds count Thiebaut playing at chefs with Berengier 
d'Autri. Thiebaut is fo much excited by his news, that he puihes the 

chelf-board 



and Sentiments. 



197 



cheil-board violently from him, and fcatters the chefl^men about the 
place — 

Thiebaus r<Jit, a pou n enrage -vis, 

Li efche's boute, et le jeu efpandit. — Garin le Lohcrain, ii. 77. 

So, in the lame romance, the emperor Pepin, arriving at his camp, had 
no fooner entered his tent than, having put on a looie tunic (l-Iiaut), and 
a mantle, he called for a cheff-board, and fat down to play — 

Efc/ics demande,Ji efl au jeu affis. — lb., ii. 127. 

Even Witikind, the king of the pagan Saxons, is reprefented as amuting 
himfelf with this game. When the meflenger, who carried him news 
that Charlemagne was on the way to make war upon him, arrived at 
"Tremoigne," the palace of the Saxon king, he found Witikind playing 
at chefs with Efcorfaus de Lutife, and the Saxon queen, Sebile, who was 
alfo well acquainted with the game, looking on — 

A hi joe as efchas Efcorfaus de Lutife ; 

Sebile les efgarde, qi do jeu eft aprife. — Chanson des Saxons, i. 91. 

Witikind was fo angry at this intelligence, that his face " became as red 
as a cherry," and he broke the chefs-board to pieces — 

U'ire et de mautalant rugift comme cerife ; 
Le meffage regarde, le geu peqoie et brife. 

In the " Chanfon de Gerte" of Guerin de Montglaive, the rtory turns 
upon an imprudent a6r. of Charlemagne, who Hakes his whole kingdom 
upon a game of chefs, and lofing it to Guerin, is obliged to compound 
with him by furrendering to him his right to the city of Montglaive, then 
in the pofleffion of the Saracens. 

Thefe " Chanfons de Gefte," formed upon the traditions of the early 
Carlovingian period, can only of courfe be taken as a picture of the 
manner of the age at which they were compofed, that is, of the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, and we know, from hiftorical evidence, that the 
pifture is ftri&ly true. At that period chefs certainly was what lias been 
termed the royal game. The celebrated Walter Mapes, writing in the 
latter half of the twelfth century, gives a curious anecdote relating to 

tragical 



198 Hiflory of Domeftic Manners 

tragical events which had occurred at the court of Britany, apparently in 
the earlier part of the fame century. Alan of Britany, perhaps the laft 
of the name who had ruled over that country, had, at the fuggeftion of 
his wife, entrapped a feudatory prince, Remelin, and fubjecfed him to 
the lofs of his eyes and other mutilations. Remelin's fon, Wigan, having 
efcaped a limilar fate, made war upon Alan, and reduced him to fuch 
extremities that, through the interference of the king of France, he made 
his peace with Wigan, by giving him his daughter in marriage, and thus 
for many years the country remained in peace. But it appears that the 
lady always fhared in her father's feuds, and looked with exulting con- 
tempt on her father's mutilated enemy. One day fhe was playing with 
her huiband at chefs, and, towards the end of the game, Wigan, called 
away by fome important buiinefs, atked one of his knights to take his 
place at the cheff-board. The lady was the conqueror, and when the 
made her laft move, the faid to the knight, "It is not to you, but to the 
fon of the mutilated that I fay 'mate.' " Wigan heard this farcafm, and, 
deeply offended, hurried to the refidence of his father-in-law, took him 
by furprife, and infli&ed upon him the fame mutilations which had been 
experienced by Remelin. Then, returning home, he engaged in another 
game with his wife, and, having gained it, threw the eyes and other 
parts of which her father had been deprived on the cheff-board, exclaim- 
ing, "I fay mate, to the daughter of the mutilated." The ftory goes on 
to fay that the lady concealed her defire of vengeance, until the found an 
opportunity of effecting the murder of her huiband. 

We need not be furprifed if, among the turbulent barons of the 
middle ages, the game of chefs often gave rife to difputes and fanguinary 
quarrels. The curious hiftory of the Fitz-Warines, reduced to writing 
certainly in the thirteenth century, gives the following account of the 
origin of the feud between king John and Fulk Fitz-Warine, the out- 
law : — "Young Fulk," we are told, "was bred with the four fons of 
king Henry II., and was much beloved by them all except John ; for he 
ufed often to quarrel with John. It happened that John and Fulk were 
fitting all alone in a chamber playing at chefs ; John took the chefs- 
board and ftruck Fulk a great blow. Fulk felt himfelf hurt, railed his 

foot 



toot and ftruck John in the middle of the itomach, that his head went 
againit the wall, and he became all weak and fainted. Fulk was in 
confirmation ; but he was glad that there was nobody in the chamber 
but they two, and he rubbed John's ears, who recovered from his 
fainting-fit, and went to the king his father, and made a great complaint. 
'Hold your tongue, wretch,' faid the king, 'you are always quarrelling. 
If Fulk did anything but good to you, it muft have been by your own 
defert ;' and he called his matter, and made him beat him finely and well 
for complaining." Similar incidents recur continually in the early romances 
I have juft quoted as the "Chanfons de Gefte," which give us fo vivid a 
picture cf feudal times. A fatal quarrel of this kind was the caufe of the 
feud between Charlemagne and Ogier le Danois. At one of the Eafter 
feftivals of the court of Charlemagne, the emperor's fon, Charles, and 
Bauduin, the illegitimate fon of Ogier, went to play together. Bauduin 
and young Charles took a cherT-board and fat down to the game for 
paftime. "They have arranged their cheff-men on the board. The 
king's fon firft moved his pawn, and young Bauduin moved his aufin 
(bifhop) backwards. The king's fon thought to prefs him very hard, and 
moves his knight upon the other aufin. The one moved forward and 
the other backward fo long, that young Bauduin faid ' mate ' to him in 
the comer:" — 

// e t Callos prifent un efquekicr, 

Au ju f 'afifent por aus cfbanier. 

S'ont lor cjchcs afiis for le fabler. 

Li fix au roi traijl fon paon premier, 

Baudu'mis traift fon aufin arier. 

Li fix au roi le -volt forment coitier, 

Sus V autre aufin a trait fon chevalier. 

Tant traift li uns a-vant et I' 'autre arier, 

Bauduines li dift mat en Vangler. — Ogier do Danemarche, 1. 3159. 

The young prince was furious at his defeat, and, not content with treating 
the fon of Ogier with the mod intuiting language, he feized the chefs- 
board in his two hands, and ftruck him fo violent a blow on the forehead, 
thai he fplil his head, and fcattered his brains over the floor. Jn a well- 
known illuminated manufcript of the fifteenth century, in the Britifh 
Mufeum (MS. Reg. \ ", E. vi.), containing a copy of the romance of 

"0 



V 



200 



Hijiory ofDomefiic Manners 



" Ogier le Danois," this fcene is reprefented in an illumination which is 
copied in our cut No. 139. Similar incidents are rather common in 
thefe old romances. In that of " Parife la DucheiTe," her young fon, 
brought up as a foundling at the court of the king of Hungary, becomes 
an objecf of jealoufy to the old nobles. Four of the fons of the latter 
confpire to murder him, and it is arranged that they fhall invite him to 
go and play at chefs with them in a retired cellar, and, having fecretly 
provided themfelves with knives, infult him, in order to draw him into a 




No. 139. A Quarrel at Chefs. 



quarrel, and then flab him to death. " Hugues," they faid, "will you 
come with us to play at chefs? you may gain a hundred francs on the 
gilt chefT-board, and at the fame time you will teach us chefs and dice ; 
for certainly you know the games much better than any of us." Hugues 
feems to have been confcious of the frequency of quarrels anting from 
the game, for it was not until they had promifed him that they would 
not feek any caufe of difpute, that he accepted their invitation. They 
then led him into the cellar, and fat down at the cheiT-board. " He 
began by playing with the fori of duke Granier ; and each put down a 
hundred francs in coined money ; but he had foon vanquifhed and mated 
them all, that not one of them was able to mate him :" — 

Au 



and Sentiments. 201 



Aufil au due Graner comenca a jucr ; 

Chajcuns mijt c. fram de denicrs monies ; 

Mais il les a treftoz et -vaneus et matc%, 

S^ue il »'i ot i. fol qui Van poi/ft mater. — Parise la Duchesse, p. 105. 

Hugues, in kindnefs, offered to teach them better how to play, without 
allowing them to riik their money, but they drew their knives upon him, 
and infulted him in the moll outrageous terms. He killed the foremoft 
of them with a blow of his lift, and feizing upon the cheff-board for a 
weapon, for he was unarmed, he " brained" the other three with it. 
We learn from this anecdote that it was the cuftom in the middle ages 
to play at chefs for money. 

As I have already remarked, thefe romances picture to us the manners 
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and not thofe of the Carlovingian 
era. The period when the game of chefs was firft introduced into 
weftern Europe can only be conjectured, for writers of all defcriptions 
were fo much in the habit of employing the notions belonging to their 
own time in relating the events of the paft, that we can place no depend- 
ence on anything which is not abfolute contemporary evidence. The 
cheff-board and men fo long preferved in the treafury of St. Denis, and 
faid to have belonged to Charlemagne, were, I think, probably, not older 
than the eleventh century, and appear to have had a Byzantine origin. 
If the game of chefs had been known at the court of Charlemagne, 
I cannot but think that we fhould have found fome diftincl allufion to it. 
The earlieft mention of this game that we know is found in a letter from 
Damianus, cardinal bilhop of Oftia, to Alexander II., who was elected to 
the papacy in 1061, and enjoyed it till 1073. Damianus tells the pope 
how he was travelling with a biihop of Florence, when, "having arrived 
in the evening at a hoftel, I withdrew," he fays, " into the cell of a 
prieft, while he remained with the crowd of travellers in the fpacious 
houfe. In the morning, I was informed by my fervant that the aforefaid 
biihop had been playing at the game of chefs ; which information, like 
an arrow, pierced my heart very acutely. At a convenient hour, I lent 
for him, and faid in a tone of levere reproof, 'The hand is ftretched out, 
tin' rod is ready for the back of the offender.' ' Let the fault be proved,' 

n i) faid 



202 Hiflory of Dome/He Manners 

faid he, 'and. penance lhall not be refufed.' 'Was it well/ I rejoined, 
' was it worthy of the character you bear, to fpend the evening in the 
vanity of chefT-play (in vamtate fcachorum), and defile the hands and 
tongue, which ought to be the mediator between man and the Deity? 
Are you not aware that, by the canonical law, bilhops, who are dice- 
players, are ordered to be depofed ? ' He, however, making himfelf a 
fbield of defence from the difference in the names, faid that dice was one 
thing, and chefs another ; confequently that the canon only forbade dice, 
but that it tacitly allowed chefs. To which I replied, ' Chefs,' I faid, ' is 
not named in the text, but the general term of dice comprehends both 
the games. Wherefore, fince dice are prohibited, and chefs is not 
expreffly mentioned, it follows, without doubt, that both kinds of play 
are included under one term, and equally condemned?' " This occurred 
in Italy, and it is evident from it that the game of chefs was then well 
known there, though I think we have a right to conclude from it, that it 
had not been long known. There appears to be little room for doubting, 
that chefs was, like fo many other mediaeval practices, an oriental inven- 
tion, that the Byzantine Greeks derived it from the Saracens, and that 
from them it came by way of Italy to France. 

The knowledge of the game of chefs, however, feems to have been 
brought more dire6tly from the Ealt by the Scandinavian navigators, to 
whom fuch a means of palling time in their difiant voyages, and in 
their long nights at home, was moll welcome, and who foon became 
extraordinarily attached to it, and difplayed their ingenuity in elaborately 
carving cheff-men in ivory (that is, in the ivory of the walrus), which 
feem to have found an extenfive market in other countries. In the year 
1 83 1, a confiderable number of thefe carved ivory cheff-men were found 
on the coalt of the Me of Lewis, probably the refult of fome lhipwreck 
in the twelfth century, for to that period they belong. They formed part 
of at leaft feven fets, and had therefore probably been the Hock of a 
dealer. Some of them were obtained by the Britilh Mufeum, and a very 
learned and valuable paper on them was communicated by sir Frederic 
Madden to the Society of Antiquaries, and printed in the twenty-fourth 
volume of the Archeeologia. Some of the bell of them, however, 

remained 



and Sentiments. 



203 



remained in private hands, and have more recently pallid into the rich 
mufeum of the late lord Londeiborough. We give here two groups of thefe 
curious cheff-men, taken from the collection of lord Londeiborough, and 
from thofe in the Britilh Mufeum as engraved in the volume of the 
Archceologia juft referred to. The firft group, forming our cut No. 140, 




No. 140. Icelandic Cheff-men of the Twelfth Century. 

confifts of a king (1), from the collection of lord Londeiborough, and a 
queen (2), biihop (3), and knight (4), all from the Archceologia ; and the 
fecond group (No. 141) prefents us with the warriors on foot, to which 
the Icelanders gave the name of hrokr, and to which sir Frederic 
Madden gives the Englifh name of warders, one of them (5) from lord 
Londelborough's collection, the other (6) from the Britilh Mufeum. 
The reft are pawns, all from the latter collection ; they are generally 
plain and octagonal, as in the group to the right (7), but were fometimes 
ornamented, as in the cafe of the other example (8). 

It will be feen at once that in name and character thefe cheff-men 
are nearly identical with thofe in common life, although in coftume they 
are purely Scandinavian. The king lits in the pout ion, with his fword 
acrofi his knee, and his hand ready to draw it, which is defcribed as cha- 
ractcriltic of royalty in the old northern poetry. The queen holds in her 

hand 



204 



Hijiory of ' Domeftic Manners 



hand a drinking horn, in which at great fellivals the lady of the houfe- 
hold, of whatever rank, was accuftomed to ferve out the ale or mead to 
the guefts. The bifhops are fome feated, and others Handing, but all dis- 
tinguished by the mitre, crofier, and epifcopal coftume. The knights are 




Icelandic Chejf-men of the Twelfth Century. 



all on horfeback, and are covered with characferiftic armour. The armed 
men on foot, juft mentioned by the name of warders, were peculiar to the 
Scandinavian fet of cheff-men, and fupplied the place of the rocks, or 
rooks, in the mediaeval game, and of the modern cattle. 

Several of the cheff-men had indeed gone through more than one 
modification in their progrefs from the Eaft. The Arabs and Perfians 
admitted no female among the perfons on their cheff-board, and the 
piece which we call the queen was with them the pherz (vizier or coun- 
cillor). The oriental name, under the form fers,fer%, or ferce, in Latin 
ferzia, was long preferved in the middle ages, though certainly as early as 
the twelfth century the original character of the piece had been changed 
for that of a queen, and the names fers and queen became fynonymous. 
It is hardly neceffary to fay that a biihop would not be found on a 
Saracenic cheff-board. This piece was called by the Perfians and Arabs 
pil or phil, meaning an elephant, under the form of which animal it was 
reprefented. This name was alfo preferved in its tranfmiffion to the 
weft, and with the Arab article prefixed became alfil, or more commonly 

alfin, 



id Sentiments. 



205 



ulfin, which was again foftened down into aufin, the ufual name of the 
piece in the old French and Engliih writers. The character of the biihop 
muft have been adopted very early among the Chriitians, and it is found 
under that character among the Northerns, and in England. Such, how- 
ever, was not the cafe everywhere. The Ruffians and Swedes have pre- 
ferved the original name of the elephant. In Italy and France this piece 
was fometimes reprefented as an archer ; and at an early period in the 
latter country, from a fuppofed confufion of the Arabic Jil with the 
French fol, it was fometimes called by the latter name, and reprefented 
as a court jefter. Roc, the name given by the Saracens to the piece now 
called the cattle, meant apparently a hero, or champion, Perfian rohh ; 
the name was preferved in the middle ages, but the piece feems to have 
been firft reprefented under the character of an elephant, and it was no 
doubt, from the tower which the elephant carried on its back, that our 
modern form originated. The Icelanders feem alone to have adopted 




No. 142. Chejf-man of the Thirteenth Century 



the name in its original meaning, for with them, as lhown in cut 
No. 141, the hrokr is reprefented as a warrior on foot. 

A few examples of carved cheff-men have been found in different 
parts of England, which lhow that thefe highly-ornamented pieces were 
in ufe at all periods. One of thefe, reprefented in our cut No. i-(-\ is 
preferved in the Aihmolean Mufeum at Oxford, and, to judge by tin- 
collume, belongs to the earlier part of the thirteenth century. Its 

materia] 



2o6 



Hi ft or y of Domeftic Manners 




No. 143. Chejf-man of the Fourteenth Century. 



material is the tooth of the walrus (the northern ivory) ; it reprefents 
a knight on both fides, one wielding a lance, the other a fword, the 

intervening fpaces being filled with 
foliage. Another knight, made of 
real ivory, is reprefented in our cut 
No. 143, taken from an engraving 
in the third volume of the Archceo- 
logical Journal, where it is Hated to 
be in the poffeffion of the Rev. J. 
Eagles, of Worcefter. It belongs 
to the reign of Edward III. Here 
the knight is on horfeback, and 
wears chain-mail and plate. The 
body of the horfe is entirely covered 
with chain-mail, over which houfings are placed, and the head with 
plate-armour. 

All who are acquainted with the general character of mediaeval 
carving will fuppofe that thele ornamental cheff-men were of large 
dimensions, and confequently rather clumfy for ufe. The larger! of thofe 
found in the Ifle of Lewis, a king, is upwards of four inches in height, 
and nearly feven inches in circumference. They were hence rather for- 
midable weapons in a firong hand, and we find them ufed as fuch in fome 
of the fcenes of the early romances. According to one verfion of the death 
of Bauduin, the illegitimate fon of Ogier, the young prince Charles flruck 
him with the rook fo violent a blow that he made his two eyes fly out : — 

La le dona Callos le cop mortel 

Si com juolt as ejke's et as de's ; 

La le feri d^un rok par tel fiertes, 

Slue andus les elx It fife du cief'voler. — Ogier de Danemarche, 1. 90. 

A rather rude illumination is one of the manufcripts, of which 
M. Barrois has given a fac-fimile in his edition of this romance, repre- 
senting Charles finking his opponent with the rook. According to 
another verfion of the flory, the young prince, ufing the rook as a miflile, 
threw it at him. An incident in the romance of the " Quatre Fils 

d'Aymon," 



and Sentiments. 207 



d'Aymon," where the agents of Regnault go to arreft the duke Richard 
of Xormandy, and rind him playing at chefs, is thus told quaintly in the 
Englilh verfion, printed by Copeland : — "When duke RJcharde law that 
thefe fergeauntes had him thus by the arm, and helde in his hande a lady 
of ivery, wherewith he would have given a mate to Yonnet, he withdrew 
his arme, and gave to one of the fergeauntes fuch a ftroke with it into 
the forehead, that he made him tumble over and over at his feete ; and 
than he tooke a rooke, and fmote another withall upon his head, that he 
all to-broft it to the brayne." 

The cheff-boards were naturally large, and were fometimes made of 
the precious metals, and of other rich materials. In one romance, the 
cheif-board and men are made of cryftal j in another, that of "Alexander," 
the men are made of fapphires and topazes. A cheiT-board, preferved in 
the mufeum of the Hotel de Cluny, at Paris, and laid to have been the 
one given by the old man of the mountains (the sheikh of the Haffaffins) 
to St. Louis, is made of rock-cryftal, and mounted in lilver gilt. In the 
romances, however, the cheff-board is fometimes fpoken of as made of 
ormier, or elm. In fact, when the game of chefs came into extenfive ufe, 
it became necelfary not only to make the cheff-board and men of lefs 
expeniive materials and fmaller, but to give to the latter fimple conven- 
tional forms, inftead of making them elaborate fculptures. The founda- 
tion for this latter practice had already been laid by the Arabs, whofe 
tenets, contrary to thofe of the Perfians, profcribed all images of living- 
beings. The mediaeval conventional form of the rook, a figure with a 
bi-parted head, fomewhat approaching to the heraldic form of the fleur- 
de-lis, appears to have been taken dire&ly from the Arabs. The knight 
was reprefented by a fmall upright column, the upper part of it bent to 
one fide, and is fuppofed to have been meant for a rude reprefentation of 
the horfe's head. The autin, or biihop, had the lame form as the knight, 
except that the bent end was cleft, probably as an indication of the 
epifcopal mitre. The accompanying figure of a chelf-board (No. 144), 
taken from a manufcript of the earlier pari of the fourteenth century 
(MS. Cotton. Cleopat. B. ix.), hut no doubt copied from one of the latter 
part of the thirteenth century, when the Anglo- Norma 11 metrical trealile 

on 



2o8 



Hiftory of Dome flic Manners 



on chefs which it illuftrates was compofed, gives all the conventional 
forms of chefs-men ufed at that time. The piece at the left-hand 
extremity of the lower row is evidently a king. The other king is feen 
in the centre of the upper row. Immediately to the left of the latter is 
the queen, and the two figures below the king and queen are knights, 
while thofe to the left of the queen and white knight are rooks. Thofe 
in the right-hand corner, at top and bottom, are aufins, or bifhops. The 
pawns on this cheff-board bear a finking refemblance to thofe found in 



IxQil 




■ rl 


Qf Q 


■ ■ 


■ ■ ■ 


i 

i 


D 

■ 
■ 
• ■ 

■ 


■ -)□<<■ 


■ ■ 
■ ■ ■ 

*■*■ 


D 

i 



No. 144. An Early Cheff-board and Chejf-i 



the Ifle of Lewis. The fame forms, with very flight variations, prefent 
themfelves in the fcenes of cheff-playing as depicfed in the illuminated 
manufcripts. Thus, in a manufcript of the French profe romance of 
"Meliadus," in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Addit. No. 12,228, fol. 23, v°), 
written between the years 1330 and 1350, we have an interesting fketch 
(given in our cut No. 145) of two kings engaged in this game. The 
rooks and the bifhops are diftinclly reprefented, but the others are lefs 
eafily recognifed, in confequence of the imperfecf drawing. Our next 
cut (No. 146) is taken from the well-known manufcript of the poetry of 
the German Minnehngers, made for Rudiger von Maneffe, early in the 
fourteenth century, and now preferred in the National Library in Paris, 

and 



and Sentiments. 



,09 



md reprefents the prince poet, Otto of Brandenburg, playing at chefs 




No. 145. A Royal Game at Chefs. 

with a lady. We have here the fame conventional forms of chefl-men, 




No. 146. A Game at Chefs in the Fourteenth Century. 



circumftance which (hows that the feme types preva 

E E 



England, 
France, 




2 I o Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

France, and Germany. Another group, in which a king is introduced 
playing at chefs, forms the fubject of our cut No. 147, and is taken from 
a manufcript of the thirteenth century, in 
the Harleian collection in the Britifh 
Mufeum (No. 127,5), confuting of a nume- 
rous feries of illuftrations of the Bible 
hiftory, executed evidently in England. 
It will be feen that the character of chefs 
as a royal game is fuftained throughout. 
In this century the game of chefs had 

No. 147. A King at Chefs. 

become extremely popular among the 
feudal ariftocracy — including under that head all who could alpire to 
knighthood. Already, in the twelfth century, directions for the game 
had been compofed in Latin verfe, which feems to fhow that, in fpite 
of the zeal of men like cardinal Damianus, it was popular among the 
clergy. Towards the latter end of the thirteenth century, a French 
dominican friar, Jacques de Ceffoles, made the game the fubject of a 
moral work, entitled Moralitas de Scaccario, which became very popular 
in later times, was published in a French verfion by Jean de Vignay, and 
tranflated from this French verfion into Englilh, by Caxton, in his "Boke 
of Cheffe," fo celebrated among bibliographers. To the age of Jacques 
de Ceffoles belongs an Anglo-Norman metrical treatife on chefs, of which 
feveral copies are preferred in manufcript (the one I have ufed is in MS. 
Reg. 13 A. xviii. fol. i6t, v°), and which prefents us with the firft 
collection of games. Thefe games are diftinguifhed by quaint names, 
like thofe given to the old dances ; fuch as de propre confujion (one's own 
confufion), ky per de, fey fauve (the lofer wins), hy eft larges, eft/ages (he 
that is liberal is wife), me/chief fet horn penfer (misfortune makes a man 
reflect), la chace deferce et de chivaler (the chace of the queen and the 
knight), de dames et de damyceles (ladies and damfels), la latalie de rokes 
(the battle of the rooks), and the like. 

It is quite unneceffary to attempt to point out the numerous alluvions 
to the game of chefs during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when 
it continued to be extremely popular. Chaucer, in one of his minor 

poems, 



and Sentiments. 1 1 1 



poems, the "Boke of the Ducheffe," introduces himfelf in a dream as 
playing at chefs with Fortune, and fpeaks of falfe moves, as though dif- 
honeft tricks were fometimes pra&ifed in the game. He tells us, — ■ 

At chcjjc with me Jhe gan to pleyc, 

With hirfals draughtes (moves) dyvers 

She Jtaale on me, and toke my fers (queen) ; 

And ivhanne I faugh my fen atvaye, 

Alias ! I kouthe no lenger playe, 

But fey de, " Farewel, fwete ! yivys, 

And fareioel al that ever ther ys ! ' ' 

Therivith Fortune feyde, " Chek here ! " 

And " mate'"'' in the myd poynt of the chekkere (chess-board), 

With a poivne (pawn) err ante, alias ! 

Ful craftier to pleye Jhe ivas 

Than Athalus, that made the game 

Firft of the chefp, fo ivas hys name. — Robert Ckll's Cliaucer, vol. vi. p. 157. 

With the breaking up of feudalifm, the game of chefs feems to have 
gone to a great extent out of practice, and made way for a comparatively 
new game, — that of cards, which now became very popular. When 
Caxton printed his "Boke of Cheife" in 1474, he fought only to publilli 
a moral treatife, and not to furnifli his countrymen with a book of 
inftructions in the game. The cut of the cheff-player given in this book, 
copied in our cut No. 148, (hows fome modifications in the forms of the 
cheff-men. The knight, the rook, and the pawn, have preferved their 
old forms ; but we are led to fuppofe, by the number of pieces with the 
bi-partite head, that the bilhop had affumed a fhape nearly refembling 
that of the rook. We have juft feen Chaucer alluding to one of the 
legends relating to the origin of this game. Caxton, after Jean de Vignay 
and Jacques de Celfoles, gives us a ftrange ftory how it was invented 
under Evylmerodach, king of Babylon, by a philolbpher, " whyche was 
named in Caldee Exerfes, or in Greke Philemetor." 

Meanwhile, the game of chefs had continued to flourifh in Italy, 
where it appears to have experienced improvements, and where certainly 
the forms of the men were confiderably modified. An Italian yerfion of 
the work of Jacques de Celfoles was printed at Florence in 149.5, under 
the title of Libra de Giuocho dclli Scacchi, among the engravings to which, 

as 



212 



Hiflory of Domejlic Manners 



as in moft of the editions of that work, there is a picture of a group of 
cheff-players, who are here feated at a round table. The cheff-board is 
reprefented in our cut, No. 149, and it will be feen at a glance that the 




No. 148. Chefs in the Fifteenth Century 



chefT-men prefent a far greater refemblance to thofe ufed at the prefent 
day than thofe given in the older illuminations. Within a few years of 
the date of this book, a Portuguefe, named Damiano, who was perhaps 




[49. An Italian Chcjf-b 



refiding in Italy, as his work feems to have appeared there firft, drew up 
a book of directions for chefs with a fet of eighty-eight games, which 
difplay confiderable ingenuity. An edition of this book was published at 

Rome 



and Sentiments. 



213 



Rome as early as 1524, and perhaps tills was not the firft. The figures 
of the cheff-men are given in this treatile ; that of the king is vafe- 
lhaped, not unlike our modern cheff-king, but with two crowns; the 
queen is fimilar in ihape, but has one crown ; the delfino (biihop) differs 
from them in being fmaller, and having no crown ; the cavallo (knight) 
has the form of a horfe's head; the rocho, as it is ftill called, is in the 
form of a tower, like our modern caflle ; and the pedona (pawn) refembles 
a cone, with a knob at the apex. In England, the game of chefs feems 
not to have been much in vogue during the fixteenth century; it is, 
I believe, only alluded to once in Shakefpeare, in a well-known fcene in 
the Tempeft, which may have been taken from a foreign ftory, to which 
he owed his plot. The name of the game had been corrupted into 
chejis or cheafts. The game of chefs was expreflly difcouraged by our 
"Solomon," James I., as " overwife and philofophicke a folly." An 
attempt to bring it into more notice appears to have been made early in 
the reign of Elizabeth, under the patronage of lord Robert Dudley, 
afterwards the celebrated earl of Leicefter, who difplayed on many occa- 
sions a tafte for refinements of this fort. Inftru6tions were again fought 
from Italy through France ; for there was printed and publiihed in 
London, in the year 1562, a little volume dedicated to lord Robert 
Dudley, under the title of "The Pleafaunt and wittie Playe of the Cheafts 
reniewed, with InftrucYions both to Learn it Eafily and to Play it Well ; 
lately translated out of Italian into French, and now fet forth in Englilhe 
by James Rowbotham." Rowbotham gives us fome remarks of his own 
on the character of the game, and on the different forms of the cheff- 
men, which are not uninterefting. He fays : — " As for the faihion of the 
pieces, that is according to the fantafie of the workman, which maketh 
them after this manner. Some make them lyke men, whereof the 
kynge is the higheft, and the queene (whiche fome name amafone or 
ladye) is the next, bothe two crowned. The bifhoppes fome name 
alphins, fome fooles, and fome name them princes, lyke as alio they are 
next unto the kinge and the queene, other fome cal them archers, and 
tlni are faihioned accordinge to the wyll of the workeman. The knights 
fome call horfemen, and thei are men on horle backe. The rookes dune 

cal 



214 Hiflory of Dome flic Manners 

cal elephantes, cariyng towres upon their backes, and men within the 
towres. The paunes fome cal fote men, as they are fouldiours on fote, 
cariyng fome of them pykes, other fome harquebufhes, other fome 
halbards, and other fome the javelyn and target. Other makers of 
cheaftmen make them of other fafhions ; but the ufe thereof wyll caufe 
perfect knowledge." "Our Englifhe cheaftmen," he adds, "are com- 
monly made nothing like unto thefe forefayde fafliions : to wit, the 
kynge is made the high eft or longeft; the queene is longeft nexte unto 
him j the bifhoppe is made with a fharpe toppe, and cloven in the 
middeft not muche unlyke to a bilhop's myter j the knight hath his top 
cut ailoope, as thoughe beynge dubbed knight ; the rooke is made lykeft 
to the kynge and the queene, but that he is not fo long ; the paunes be 
made the fmaleft and leaft of all, and thereby they may beft be 
knowen." 

At an early period the German tribes, as known to the Romans, were 
notorioufly addicted to gambling. We are informed by Tacitus that a 
German in his time would rilk not only his property, but his own 
perfonal liberty, on a throw of the dice ; and if he loft, he fubmitted 
patiently, as a point of honour, to be bound by his opponent, and carried 
to the market to be fold into flavery. The Anglo-Saxons appear to have 
fhared largely in this paftion, and their habits of gambling are alluded to 
in different writers. A well-known writer of the firft half of the twelfth 
century, Ordericus Vitalis, tells us that in his time even the prelates of 
the church were in the habit of playing at dice. A ftill more celebrated 
writer, John of Salifbury, who lived a little later in the fame century, 
fpeaks of dice-playing as being then extremely prevalent, and enumerates 
no lefs than ten different games, which he names in Latin, as follows : — 
teffera, calculus, tabula (tables), urio vel Dardana pugna (Troy fight), 
tricolus, fenio (fice), monarchus, orbiculi, taliorchus, and vulpes (the game 
of fox). — "De Nugis Curialium," lib. i. c. 5. The fort of eftimation in 
which the game was then held is curioufty illuftrated by an anecdote in 
the Carlovingian romance of " Parife la Ducheffe," where the king of the 
Hungarians withes to contrive fome means of tefting the real character 
(ariftocratic or plebeian) of his foundling, young Hugues, not then known 

to 



and Sentiments. 2 1 5 



to be the fon of the duchefs Parife. A party of robbers (which appears 
not to have been a fpecially difreputable avocation among the Hungarians 
of the romance) are employed, firft to feduce the youth to "the chefs 
and the dice," and afterwards to lead him againft his will to a thieving 
expedition, the objeft of which was to rob the treafury of the king, his 
godfather. They made a great hole in the wall, and thruft Hugues 
through it. The youth beheld the heaps of gold and filver with aftonifh- 
ment, but, refolved to touch none of the wealth he faw around him, his 
eyes fell upon a coffer on which lay three dice, " made and pointed in 
fine ivory" — 

Garde for i. efcrin,fi a vett iij. dez, 

Qui font de fin yvoire et fait et pointure. — Parise la Duchesse, p. 94. 

Hugues feized the three dice, thruft them into his bofom, and, returning 
through the breach in the wall, told the robbers that he had carried away 
" the worth of four cities." When the robbers heard his explanation, 
they at once concluded, from the tafte he had difplayed on this occafion, 
that he was of gentle blood, and the king formed the fame opinion on 
the refult of this trial. 

During the period of which we are now fpeaking — the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries — the ufe of dice had fpread itfelf from the higheft to 
the very loweft clafs of the population. In its fimpler form, that of the 
game of hazard, in which the chance of each player refted on the mere 
throw of the dice, it was the common game of the low frequenters of 
the taverns, — that clafs which lived upon the vices of fociety, and which 
was hardly looked upon as belonging to fociety itfelf. The practice and 
refults of gambling are frequently referred to in the popular writers of 
the later middle ages. People could no longer ftake their perfonal 
liberty on the throw, but they played for everything they had — even for 
the clothes they carried upon them, on which the tavern keepers, who 
feem to have atted alfo as pawnbrokers, readily lent i'mall funis of money. 
We often read of men who got into the taverner's hands, playing as well 
as drinking themfelves naked 3 and in a well-known manufcripl of the 
beginning of the fourteenth century (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. [67 \ | we 
find an illumination which represents this procefi very literally (cut No. 

*5°). 



2l6 



Hijiory of Dome ft ic Manners 



i^o). One, who is evidently the more aged of the two players, is 
already perfectly naked, whilft the other is reduced to his fhirt. The 
illuminator appears to have intended to reprefent them as playing 
againft: each other till neither had anything left, like the two celebrated 




No. 150. Medlaval Gamblers. 

cats of Kilkenny, who ate one another up until nothing remained but 

their tails. 

A burlefque parody on the church fervice, written in Latin, perhaps 

as early as the thirteenth century, and printed in the " Reliquice Antiques ," 

gives us rather a curious picture of tavern manners at that early period. 

The document is profane, — much more fo than any of the parodies for 
which Hone was profecuted; but it is only a 
moderate example of the general laxnefs in this 
refpecf which prevailed, even among the clergy, 
in what have been called "the ages of faith." 
This is entitled " The Mafs of the Drunkards," 
and contains a running allufion to the throwing of 
the three dice, and to the lofs of clothing which 
followed ; but it is full of Latin puns on the 
words of the church fervice, and the greater 
part of it would not bear a tranilation. 

It will have been already remarked that, in 
all thefe anecdotes and ftories, the ordinary num- 
ber of the dice is three. This appears to have 

been the number ufed in moft of the common games. In our cut 

No. 1 ^ 1, taken from the illumination in a copy of Jean de Vignay's 

tranflation 




No. 151. A Dice-Player. 



and Se?itiments. 2 1 7 



translation of Jacobus de Ceffolis (MS. Reg. 19 C. xi.), the dice-player 
appears to hold but two dice in his hand ; but this is to be laid folely to 
the charge of the draughtfman's want of fkill, as tlie text tells us dif- 
tinctly that he has three. We learn alfo from the text, that in the jug 
he holds in his right hand he carries his money, a late example of the 
ufe of earthen veifels for this purpofe. Two dice were, however, fome- 
times ufed, efpecially in the game of hazard, which appears to have been 
the great gambling game of the middle ages. Chaucer, in the " Par- 
doneres Tale," defcribes the hazardours as playing with two dice. But 
in the curious fcene in the " Towneley Myfteries" (p. 241), a work 
apparently contemporary with Chaucer, the tormentors, or executioners, 
are introduced throwing for Chrift's unfeamed garment with three dice ; 
the winner throws fifteen points, which could only be thrown with that 
number of dice. 

It would not feem eafy to give much ornamentation to the form of 
dice without deftroying their utility, yet this has been attempted at 
various times, and not only in a very grotefque but in a fimilar manner 
at very diftant periods. This was done by giving the die the form of a 
man, fo doubled up, that when thrown 
he fell in different pofitions, fo as to 
fhow the points uppermoft, like an 
ordinary die. The fmaller example 
reprefented in our cut No. 152 is 
Roman, and made of filver, and feveral 

■r, ,. r ., r r -M>- *5 2 - Ornamental Dice. 

Roman dice or the lame form are 

known. It is Angular that the fame idea mould have prefented itfelf at 
a much later period, and, as far as we can judge, without any room for 
fuppofing that it was by imitation. Our fecond example, which is larger 
than the other, and carved in box-wood, is of German work, and appa- 
rently as old as the beginning of the fixteenth century. Both arc now 
in the fine and extenfive collection of the late lord Londefborough. 

The fimple throwing of the dice was rather an excitement than an 
amufement ; and at an early period people fought the latter by a com- 
bination of the dice-throwing with fome other ijlieni of movements or 

F F calculations. 





2l8 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



calculations. In this way, no doubt, originated the different games 
enumerated by John of Salifbury, the moft popular of which was 
that of tables {tabula or tahdce). This game was in ufe among the 
Romans, and was in all probability borrowed from them by the Anglo- 
Saxons, among whom it was in great favour, and who called the game 
tcefel (evidently a mere adoption of the Latin name), and the dice teofelas 
and tcefel-Jtanas. The former evidently reprefents the Latin tejfellce, little 
cubes 3 and the latter feems to mow that the Anglo-Saxon dice were ufually 
made of ftones. At a later period, the game of tables, ufed nearly always 
in the plural, is continually mentioned along with chefs, as the two moft 
fafhionable and ariftocratic games in ufe. An early and richly illuminated 

manufcript in the Eritiih Mufeum 
— perhaps of the beginning of the 
fourteenth century (MS. Harl. 
No. 1257) — furnifhes us with the 
figures of players at tables repre- 
fented in our cut No. 153. 
The table, or board, with bars or 
points, is here clearly delineated, 
and we fee that the players ufe 
both dice and men, or pieces — 
the latter round difcs, like our modern draughtfmen. In another manu- 
fcript, belonging to a rather later period of the fourteenth century (MS. 
Reg. 13 A. xviii. fol. 157, v°), we have a diagram which fhows the board 
as compofed of two tables, reprefented in our cut No. 154. It was 
probably this conftruclion which caufed the name to be ufed in the 
plural; and as the Anglo-Saxons always ufed the name in the Angular, 
as is the cafe alfo with John of Salifbury in the twelfth century, while 
the plural is always ufed by the writers of a later date, we feem juftified 
in concluding that the board ufed by the Anglo-Saxons and Anglo- 
Normans confifted of one table, like that reprefented in our cut No. 153, 
and that this was afterwards fuperfeded by the double board. It is hardly 
neceffary to point out to our readers that thefe two pictures of the boards 
fhow us clearly that the mediaeval game of tables was identical with our 

modern 




No. 153. A Party at Tables. 



and Sentiments. 



modern backgammon, or rather, we ihould perhaps fay, that the game of 
backgammon, as now played, is one of the games played on the tables. 

In the manufcript laft quoted (MS. Reg. 13 A. xviii.) the figure of the 
board is given to illuftrate a very curious treatife on the game of tables, 



\AAAA/V 



vVvVvV 

/WYW 



No. 154. A Table-Board (Backgammon) of the Fourteenth Century. 

written in Latin, in the fourteenth, or even perhaps in the thirteenth, 
century. The writer begins by informing us, that " there are many 
games at tables with dice, of which the firft is the long game, and is 
the game of the Englifh, and it is common, and played as follows" 
(multi funt ludi ad tabulas cum taxillis, quorum primus eft longus ludus, et 
eft ludus Anglicorum, et eji communis, et eft talis naturce), meaning, I 
prefume, that it was the game ufually played in England. From the 
directions given for playing it, this game feems to have had a clofe 
general refemblance to backgammon. The writer of the treatife fays 
that it was played with three dice, or with two dice, in which latter cafe 
they counted fix at each throw for the third dice. In fome of the other 
games defcribed here, two dice only were ufed. We learn from this 
treatife the Englifh terms for two modes of winning at the " long game" 
of tables — the one being called " lympoldyng," the other "lurchyngj" 
and a perfon lofing by the former was laid to be " lvmpoldcd." '1 he 



22o Hiftory of Domeftic Manners 



writer of this traft gives directions for playing at feveral other games of 
tables, and names fome of them — fuch as " paume carie," the Lombard's 
game (ludus Lovib ardor urn) , the "imperial/' the "provincial/' "baralie," 
and "faylys." 

This game continued long to exift in England under its old name of 
tables. Thus Shakefpeare : — 

This is the ape of form, monfieur the nice, 

That, when he flays at tables, chides the dice. — Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Sc. 2. 

The game appears at this time to have been a favourite one in the taverns 
and ordinaries. Thus, in a fatirical tract in verfe, printed in 1600, we are 
told of— 

An honeji wicker, and a kind confort, 

That to the alehouje friendly would refort, 

To ha-ue a game at tables noiv and than, 

Or drinke his pot asfoone as any man. — Letting of Humours Blood, 1600. 

And one of the mofl popular of the fatirical writers of that period, 
Dekker, in his " Lanthorne and Candle-Light," printed in 1620, fays, 
punningly, — "And knowing that your moft fele6ted gallants are the 
onelye table-men that are plaid withal at ordinaries, into an ordinarye did 
he moft gentleman-like convay himfelfe in ftate." We learn from 
another trad of the fame author, the " Gul's Hornbooke," that the table- 
men at this time were ufually painted. 

We hardly perceive how the name of tables difappeared. It feems 
probable that at this time the game of tables meant limply what we now 
call backgammon, a word the oldeft mention of which, fo far as I have 
been able to difcover, occurs in Howell's " Familiar Letters," firft printed 
in 1646. It is there written baggamon. In the " Compleat Gamefter," 
1674, backgammon and ticktack occur as two diftincl: games at what 
would have formerly been called tables ; and another fimilar game was 
called Irilh. Curioufly enough, in the earlier part of the laft century the 
game of backgammon was moft celebrated as a favourite game among 
country parfons. 

Another game exifting in the middle ages, but much more rarely 
alluded to, was called dames, or ladies, and has ftill preferved that name 

in 



and Sentiments. 



22 



in French. In Engliih, it was changed for that of draughts, derived no 
doubt from the circumftance of drawing the men from one fquare to 
another. Our cut No. 155, taken from a manufcript in the Britilh 
Mufeum of the beginning of the fourteenth century, known commonly 
as Queen Mary's Pfalter (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii.), represents a lady and 




55. A Game at Draughts. 



gentleman playing at dames, or draughts, differing only from the cha- 
racter of the game at the prefent day in the circumliance that the 
draughtfmen are evidently fquare. 

The mediaeval games were gradually fuperfeded by a new contrivance, 
that of playing-cards, which were introduced into Weltern Europe in the 
courfe of the fourteenth century. It has been fuggefted that the idea of 
playing-cards was taken from chefs — in facl, that they are the game of 
chefs transferred to paper, and without a board, and they are generally 
underilood to have been derived from the Eaff Cards, while they 
poffeffed fome of the characterises of chefs, prefented the fame mixture 
of chance and lkill which diftinguiihed the game of tables. An Italian 
writer, probably of the latter part of the fifteenth century, named Cavel- 
luzzo, author of a hiftory of Viterbo, ftates that " in the year 1 379 was 
brought into Viterbo the game of cards, which conns from the country 
of the Saracens, and is with them called naib." Cards are ftill in Spaniih 

called 



222 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



called naipes, which is faid to be derived from the Arabic : but they 
were certainly known in the well of Europe before the date given by 
Cavelluzzo. Our cut No. 156 is taken from a very fine manufcript of 
the romance of " Meliadus," in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Addit. 12,228, 
fol. 313, v°), which was written apparently in the fouth of France between 
the years 1330 and 1350 ; it reprefents a royal party playing at cards, 
which was therefore confidered at that time as the amufement of the 
higheft claffes of fociety. They are, however, fnft diftin6tly alluded to in 




No. 156. Cards in the Fourteenth Century. 

hiftory in the year 1393. In that year Charles VI. of P'rance was 
labouring under a vifitation of infanity; and we find in the accounts of 
his treafurer, Charles Poupart, an entry to the following effecf : — " Given 
to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and 
diverfly coloured, and ornamented with feveral devices, to deliver to the 
lord the king for his amufement, fifty-fix fols of Paris." It is clear from 
this entry that the game of cards was then tolerably well known in 

France, 



and Sentiments. 



223 



France, and that it was by no means new, though it was evident])' not 
a common game, and the cards had to be made by a painter — that is, as 
I fuppofe, an illuminator of manufcripts. We rind as yet no allulion to 
them in England ; and it is remarkable that neither Chaucer, nor any of 
the numerous writers of his and the following age, ever fpeak of them. 
An illuminated manufcript of apparently the earlier part of the fifteenth 
century, perhaps of Flemilh workmanihip (it contains a copy of Raoul de 
Prefle's French tranflation of St. Augufline's " Civitas Dei"), prefents us 
with another card-party, which we give in our cut No. 157. Three 




No. 157. Cards in the Fifteenth Century. 



perfons are here engaged in the game, two of whom are ladies. After 
the date at which three packs of cards were made for the amufement of 
the lunatic king, the game of cards feems foon to have become common 
in France; for lefs than four years later — on the 22nd of January, 1397 — 
the provoft of Paris confidered it neceffary to publiih an edict, forbidding 
working people to play at tennis, bowls, dice, cards, or ninepins, on 
working days. By one of the aels of the fynod of Langres, in 1404, the 

clergy 



224 Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 

clergy were expreffly forbidden to play at cards. Thefe had now made 
their way into Germany, and had become fo popular there, that early in 
the fifteenth century card-making had become a regular trade. 

In England, in the third year of the reign of Edward IV. (1463), the 
importation of playing-cards, probably from Germany, was forbidden, 
among other things, by a£t of parliament ; and as that act is underftood to 
have been called for by the Englifh manufacturers, who fuffered by the 
foreign trade, it can hardly be doubted that cards were then manufactured 
in England on a rather extenfive fcale. Cards had then, indeed, evidently 
become very popular in England ; and only twenty years afterwards they 
are fpoken of as the common Chriftmas game, for Margery Pafton wrote 
as follows to her hufband, John Pafton, on the 24th of December in 
1483 : — " Pleafe it you to weet (know) that I fent your eldeft fon John to 
my lady Morley, to have knowledge of what fports were ufed in her 
houfe in the Chriftmas next following after the deceafe of my lord her 
hufband; and fhe faid that there were none difguifings, nor harpings, 
nor luting, nor finging, nor none loud difports, but playing at the tables, 
and the chefs, and cards — fuch difports fhe gave her folks leave to 

play, and none other I fent your younger fon to the lady 

Stapleton, and fhe faid according to my lady Morley's faying in that, 
and as fhe had feen ufed in places of worfhip {gentlemen s houfes) there 
as fhe had been." 

From this time the mention of cards becomes frequent. They formed 
the common amufement in the courts of England and Scotland under 
the reigns of Henry VII. and James IV. ; and it is recorded that when 
the latter monarch paid his firft vifit to his affianced bride, the young 
princefs Margaret of England, " he founde the quene playing at the 
cardes." 

It muft not be forgotten that it is partly to the ufe of playing cards 
that we owe the invention which has been juftly regarded as one of the 
greateft benefits granted to mankind. The firft cards, as we have feen, 
were painted with the hand. They were fubfequently made more 
rapidly by a procefs called ftencilling — that is, by cutting the rude forms 
through a piece of pafteboard, parchment, or thin metal, which, placed 

on 



and Sentiments. 225 



on the cardboard intended to receive the impreflion, was bruflied over 
with ink or colour, which palled through the cut out lines, and imparted 
the figure to the material beneath. A further improvement was made 
by cutting the figures on blocks of wood, and literally printing them on 
the cards. Thefe card-blocks are fuppofed to have given the firfl idea of 
wood-engraving. When people faw the effects of cutting the figures of 
the cards upon blocks, they began to cut figures of faints on blocks in the 
fame manner, and then applied the method to other fubjects, cutting in 
like manner the few words of neceflary explanation. This practice 
further expanded itfelf into what are called block-books, confifting of 
pictorial fubje£ts, with copious explanatory text. Some one at length hit 
upon the idea of cutting the pages of a regular book on fo many blocks of 
wood, and taking imprelfions on paper or vellum, inftead of writing the 
manufcript ; and this plan was foon further improved by cutting letters 
or words on feparate pieces of wood, and fetting them up together to 
form pages. The wood was fubfequently fuperfeded by metal. And 
thus originated the noble art of Printing. 



226 Hijlory of Domefiic Manners 



CHAPTER XI. 

DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS AFTER DINNER. THE CHAMBER AND ITS 

FURNITURE. PET ANIMALS. OCCUPATIONS AND MANNERS OF THE 

LADIES. SUPPER. CANDLES, LAMPS, AND LANTERNS. 

WHEN the dinner was over, and hands wafhed, a drink was ferved 
round, and then the ladies left the table, and went to their 
chambers or to the garden or fields, to feek their own amufements, which 
confifted frequently of dancing, in which they were often joined by the 
younger of the male portion of the houfehold, while the others remained 
drinking. They feem often to have gone to drink in another apartment, 
or fecondary hall, perhaps in the parlour. In the romance of " La 
Violette" (p. 159), we read of the father of a family going to fleep after 
dinner. In the fame romance (p. 152), the young ladies and gentlemen 
of a noble houfehold are defcribed as fpreading themfelves over the cattle, 
to amufe themfelves, attended by minftrels with mufic. From other 
romances we find that this amufement confined often in dancing, and 
that the ladies fometimes fang for themfelves, inftead of having minitrels. 
We find thefe amufements alluded to in the fabliaux and romances of 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In one of the fabliaux, a knight 
having been received hofpitably at a feudal cattle, after dinner they wafh, 
and drink round, and then they go to dance — 

Ses mains 
Lai/a, et puis P 'autre gent toute, 
Et puis fe burent tout a route, 
Et por Pamor dou chevalier 
Se <vont treftuit appariUier 
Defoire karoles et dances. 

In the early Englilh romance of" Sir Degrevant," after dinner the ladies 





and Sentiments. 




227 


go to their chambers to arrange themfelves, and then 
am ufe themfelves in the garden — 


bmt 


proceed to 




When the lordys ivere draivin (withdrawn), 
Ladyes ryfen, ivas not to leyn, 
And iventten to chaumbur ageyne, 

Anon thei horn dythus ((light) ; 
Dame Mildore and hyr may (maid) 
Went to the ore herd to play. 






In the 


romance of " Lanfal," we have the fame circumftance 


of dancing 


after d 


nner : — 

And after mete Syr Gaiveyn, 
Sir Gyeryes and Agrafayn, 

And Syr Launfal alfo, 
Went to daunce upon the grene, 
Unther the tour ther lay the queue-, 

Wyth fyxty ladyes and mo. 

They hadde menftrayles (minstrels) ofmoch honours, 
Fydelers,Jytolyrs, and trompours, 

And elles hyt ivere unryght ,• 
Ther they play de, for jot he to Jay , 
After mete the fomerys day, 

Alle ivhat (till) hyt ivas neygh nyght. 






It was only on extraordinary occaiions, however, that the 
walking in the garden continued all day. In the romance of 
Oxford," the dinner-party quit the table, to wander in the 


dancing or 

' Blonde of 

fields and 


forefts 


round the caftle, and the young hero of the ftory, 


on 


their return 


thence, 


goes to play in the chambers with the ladies : — 

Apres manger la-vent leurs mains, 
Puis fen -vont juer, qui ains ains, 
Ou en fores ou en rivieres, 
Ou en deduis d^autres manures. 
fehans au quel que il ueut -va, 
Et quant il re-vent fowvant -va 
Jouer e's chambrcs la contcfje 
les dames. 






Th 


ere were two claffes of dances in the middle ag 


is, t 


ie domestic 


dances 


and the dances of the jongleurs or niinlii'els. 


Af 


er the firift 
crulades, 



228 Hijiory of "Domeftic Manners 

crufades, the weftern jougleurs had adopted many of the practices of their 
brethren in the eaft, and, among others, it is evident from many alluvions 
in old writers that they had brought weft ward that of the " almehs," or 
eaftern dancing-girls. Thefe dances formed, like the vulgar fabliaux, a 
part of the jougleur's budget of reprefentations, and were moftly, like 
thofe, grofs and indecent. The other clafs of dances were of a Ampler 
character, — the domeftic dances, which confifted chiefly of the carole, in 
which ladies and gentlemen, alternately, held by each other's hands and 
danced in a circle. This mode of dance prevailed fo generally, that the 
word carole became ufed as a general term for a dance, and caroler, to 




No. 158. Dancing the Carole. 



carole, was equivalent with to dance. The accompanying cut (No. 158), 
taken from a manufcript of the Roman de Triftan, of the fourteenth 
century, in the National Library at Paris (No. 6956), reprefents a party 
dancing the carole to the mufic of pipe and tabor. A dance of another 
defcription is reprefented in our next cut (No. 159), taken from a manu- 
fcript in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii. fol. 174), alfo cf the 
fourteenth century. Here the minftrels themfelves appear to be joining 
in the faltitation which they infpire. It is a good illuftration of the fcene 
defcribed from the romance of "La Violette." On feftive occafions 
this dancing often continued till fupper-time. 

Other 



and Sentiments. 



229 



Other quieter games were purfued in the chambers. Among thefe 
the mofl dignified was chefs, after which came tables, draughts, and, in 
the fourteenth century, cards. Sometimes, as defcribed in the preceding 
chapter, they played at fedentary games, fuch as chefs and tables 5 or at 




59. A Med] aval Dance. 



diverlions of a ftill more frolicfome character. Thefe latter feem to have 
been mofl in vogue in the evening after fupper. The author of the 
" Menagier de Paris," written about the year 1393 (torn. i. p. 71), 
defcribes the ladies as playing, in an evening, at games named brie, and 
quifery ? (who ftruck ?), and pince merille, and tiers, and others. The firft 
of thefe games is mentioned about a century and a half earlier by the 
trouvere Rutebeuf, and by other mediaeval writers ; but all we feem to 
know of it is, that the players were feated, apparently on the ground, and 
that one of them was furnifhed with a rod or ftick. We know lets ilill 
of pince merille. Quifery? is evidently the game which was, at a later 
period, called hot-cockles ; and tiers is underftood to be the game now 
called blindman's buff. Thefe, and other games, are not unfrequently 
reprefented in the fanciful drawings in the margins of mediaeval illu- 
minated manufcriptsj but as no names or defcriptions are given with 
thefe drawings, it is often very difficult to identify them. Our cut 
(No. 160), which is given by Strutt, from a manufcript in the Bodleian 
Library at Oxford, is one of feveral fubjefts rcprefenting the game of 
blindman's buff, or, as it was formerly called in England, hoodman-blind, 
becaufe the perfon blinded had his eyes covered with a hood. It is 

here 



2 3 



Hijiory of Domeftlc Manners 



here played by females,, but, in other illuminations, or drawings, the 
players are boys or men — the latter plainly indicated by their beards. 
The word hoodman-blind is not found at an earlier period than the 
Elizabethan age, yet this name, from its allufion to the coftume, was 




No. 1 60. The Game of Hoodman-blind. 



evidently older. A perfonage in Shakefpeare (Hamlet, Act iii. 
Scene 4) afks — 

What de-uil was V 
That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind! 

Hot-cockles feems formerly to have been a very favourite game. One of 




No. 161. A Game at Hot-cockles. 



the players was blindfolded, and knelt down, with his face on the knee 
of another, and his hand held out flat behind him ; the other players in 
turn {truck him on the hand, and he was obliged to guefs at the name of 

the 



and Sentiments. 



231 



the ftriker, who, if he gueffed right, was compelled to take his place. 
A part of the joke appears to have confided in the hardnefs of the blows. 
Our cut (No. 161), from the Bodleian manufcript (which was written in 
1344), is evidently intended to repreient a party of females playing at 
hot-cockles, though the damfel who plays the principal part is not blind- 
folded, and lhe is touched on the back, and not on the hand. Our next 
cut (No. 162), which reprefents a party of ihepherds and ihepherdefies 
engaged in the fame game, is taken from a piece of Flemifh tapeftry, of 
the fifteenth century, which is at prelent to be feen in the South Ken- 




No. 162. Shepherds and ShcphcrdeJJi 



fington Mufeum. Allufions to this game are found in the writers of 
the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries. Among the "commendatory 
verfes" to the fecond edition of " Gondibert " (by William Davenant), 
printed in 1653, is the following rather curious piece of wit, which 
explains itfelf, and is, at the fame time, an extremely good defcription of 
this game : — 

THE POET'S HOT-COCKLES. 



Thus poets, pajfing time away, 
Like children at hot-cockles play ; 
Allftrike by turn, and Will is Jl rook 
(A nd he lies down that writes a book) . 



Have 



232 Hiftory of Do?neJlic Manners 



Have at thee, Will, for now I come, 

Spread thy hand fair e upon thy bomb ; 

For thy much infolence, bold bard, 

And little fenfe I flrike thus hard. 

" Whofe hand -was that /"' " ' Twas Jafpar Mayne. ' ' 

" Nay, there you're out ; lie doivn again." 

With Gondibert, prepare, and all 

See where the doclor comes to maul 

The author's hand, 'twill make him reel ; 

No, Will lies fill, and does not feel. 

That book 'j fo light, 'tis all one whether 

Tou flrike with that or with a feather. 

But room for one, new come to town, 

That jlrikes fo hard, he'll knock him down ; 

The hand he knows, flnce it the place 

Has toucht more tender than his face ; 

Important periff, now thou lyfl down, 

We'll kijs thy hands, and clap our own. 

The game of hot-cockles has only become obfolete in recent times, if 
it be even now quite out of ufe. Moll readers will remember the paffage 
in Gay's " Paftorals :" — 

As at hot- cockles once I laid me doivn, 
And felt the weighty hand of many a clown, 
Buxoma gave a gentle tap, and I 
Quick rofe, and read foft mifchief in her eye. 

This paffage is aptly illuftrated by the cut from the tapeftry. The 
fame Bodleian manufcript gives us a playful group, reproduced in cur 
cut No. 163, which Strutt believes to be the game called, in more 
modern times, " frog-in-the-middle." One of the party, who played frog, 
fat on the ground, while his comrades furrounded and buffeted him, 
until he could catch and hold one of them, who then had to take his 
place. In our cut, the players are females. 

Games of queftions and commands, and of forfeits, were alfo common 
in mediaeval fociety. Among the poems of Baudouin and Jean de Conde 
(poets of the thirteenth century), we have a defcription of a game of this 
kind. " One time," we are told, " there was play among ladies and 
damfels 3 there were among them both clever and handfome 3 they took 
up many games, until, at laft, they elected a queen to play at roy-qui-ne- 

ment 



and Sentiments. 



2 33 



merit (the king who does not lie) ; (he, whom they chofe, was clever at 
commands and at queftions:" — 

Une foi ierent en dofnoi 

Entre dames ct damoifelles ; 

De cointes i ot et de belles. 

De plu/ieurs deduits fentremij}rcnt i 

Et tant c'une royne fjlrent 

Pour puer au my-qui-ne-ment. 

Ele J' 'en favoit jinement 

Entremettre de commander 

Et de demandes demander. — Barbazan Fabliaux, torn. i. p. 100. 

The aim of the queftions was, of courfe, to provoke anfwers which would 
excite mirth ; and the fequel of the ftory Ihows the great want of delicacy 




No. 163. The Game of Frog-in-thc- Middle. 

which prevailed in mediaeval fociety. Another fort of amufement was 
furnilhed, by what may be called games of chance ; in which the players, 
in turn, drew a character at hazard. Thefe characters were generally 
written in verfe, in burlefque and often very coarfe language, and feveral 
lets of them have been preferved in old manufcripts. They con lift of 
a feries of alternate good and bad characters, fometimes only defigned for 
females, but at others for women and men: two of thefe lets (printed 
in my " Anecdota Literaria") were written in England; one, of the 
thirteenth century, in Anglo-Norman, the other, of the fifteenth century, 
in Engltfh. From thefe we learn that the game, in England, was called 
Rageman, or Ragman, and that the verfes, defcribing the characters, were 

11 11 written 



234 Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 



written on a roll called Ragman's Roll, and had firings attached to them, 
by which each perfon drew his or her chance. The Englilh fet has a 
fhort preface, in which the author addrefles himfelf to the ladies, for 
whofe fpecial ufe it was compiled :— 

My ladyes and my maiftref'es echone, 
Lyke hit unto your humbylle ivommanhede 
Refa-ve in gre (good part) of my fympille perfone 
This rolk, ivhich ivithouten any drede 
Kynge Ragman me bad me jour e in brede, 
And crijiyned yt the mcroure of your chaur.ee ; 
Draivetb a frynge, and that fhal freight yoiv leyde 
Unto the Kerry path of your governaunce — 

i. e. it will tell you exaclly how you behave yourfelf, what is your 
character. This game is alluded to by the poet Gower in the " Confeffio 
Amantis :" — 

Venus, ivhiche flant ivithoute lavvSf 

In non certeyne, but as men draive 

Of Ragemon upon the chaunce, 

Sche leyeth no peys (weight) in the balaunce. 

The ragman's roll, when rolled up for ufe, would prefent a confuted mafs 
of firings hanging from it, probably with bits of wax at the end, from 
which the drawer had to felecl: one. This game poffefles a peculiar 
hiftorical intereft. When the Scottifh nobles and chieftains acknowledged 
their dependence on the Englilh crown in the reign of Edward I., the 
deed by which they made this acknowledgment, having all their feals 
hung to it, prefented, when rolled up, much the appearance of the roll 
ufed in this game ; and hence, no doubt, they gave it in derifion the 
name of the Ragmaris Roll. Afterwards it became the cuftora to call any 
roll with many fignatures, or any long catalogue, the various headings of 
which were perhaps marked by firings, by the fame name. This game 
of chance or fortune was continued, under other names, to a late period. 
In the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries the burlefque characters were 
often inferibed on the back of roundels, which were no doubt dealt round 
to the company like cards, with the inferibed fide downwards. 

Sometimes the ladies and young men indulged within doors in more 

acfive 



and Sentiments. 



235 



acYive games — among which we may mention efpecially different games 
with the ball, and alio, perhaps, the whipping-top. We learn from many 
fources that hand-ball was from a very early period a favourite recrea- 
tion with the youth of both fexes. It is a 
fubjecl: not unfrequently met with in the 
marginal drawings of mediaeval manufcripts. 
The annexed example (cut No. 164), from 
MS. Harl. No. 6563, reprefents appa- 
rently two ladies playing with a ball. In 
other inftances, a lady and a gentleman are 
fimilarly occupied. Our cut No. 165 is 
taken from one of the carvings of the mife- 
rere feats in Gloucefter cathedral. The long 
tails of the hoods belong to the coftume of the latter part of the four- 
teenth century. The whipping-top was alio a plaything of coniiderable 
antiquity ; I think it maybe traced to the Anglo-Saxon period. Our 




64. Ball-PLy: 




Jo. 165. A Game at Ball. 



cut No. 166 is taken from one of the marginal drawings of a well-known 
manufcript in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii.) of the beginning 
of the fourteenth century. It may be remarked that the knots on the 
ladies merely mark a conventional manner of representing a whip, for 
every boy knows that a knotted whip would not do lor a top. Mediaeval 
art was full of fuch conventionalities. 

Molt 



236 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



Moft of thefe recreations of young people in the middle ages were 
gradually left to a frill younger age, and became children's games, and 
of thefe the margins of the illuminated manufcripts furnifh abundant 
examples. One of thefe (taken from the margin of the Royal MS., 




No. 1 66. Whipping-Top. 

10 E. iv., of the fourteenth century) will be fufficient for the prefent 
occalion. A favourite game, during at leaft the later periods of the 
middle ages, was that which is now called nine-pins. The French gave 
it the name quilles, which in our language was corrupted into keyles and 




No. 167. The Game of Kayles. 



hayles. The lad in our cut (No. 167) is net, as at prefent, bowling at 
the pins, but throwing with a flick, a form of the game which was called 
in French the jeu de quilles d la/ton, and in Englilh club-kayles. Money 
was apparently played for, and the game was looked upon as belonging 
to the fame clafs as hazard. In a feries of metrical counfels to appren- 
tices. 



and Sentiments. 237 



tices, compiled in the fifteenth century, and printed in the " Reliquiae 
Antiquas," ii. 223, they are recommended to — 

Excbezve allrwey e-ville company, 
Caylys, carding, and baferdy. 

When no gaiety was going on, the ladies of the houfehold were em- 
ployed in occupations of a more ufeful defcription, among which the prin- 
cipal were fpinning, weaving, knitting, embroidering, and fewing. Almolt 
everything of this kind was done at home at the period of which we are 
now fpeaking, and equally in the feudal cattle or manor, and in the houfe 
of the fubftantial burgher, the female part of the family fpent a great 
part of their time in different kinds of work in the chambers of the lady 
of the houfehold. Such work is alluded to in mediaeval writers, from 
time to time, and we find it reprefented in illuminated manufcripts, but 
not fo frequently as fome of the other domeftic fcenes. In the romance 
of the "Death of Garin le Loherain," when count Fromont vifited the 
chamber of fair Beatrice, he found her occupied in fewing a very 
beautiful chainjil, or petticoat : — 

Vint en la chambre a la bele Beatrix ; 

Ele cojoit un molt riche chainjil. — Hurt de Garin, p. 10. 

In the romance of "La Violette," the daughter of the burgher, in whole 
houfe the count Girard is lodged, is defcribed as being " one day feated 
in her father's chambers working a flole and amice in filk and gold, very 
ikilfully, and fhe made in it, with care, many a little crols and many a 
ftar, finging all the while a chanfon-d-toile," meaning, it is fuppofed, a 
fong of a grave meafure, compofed for the purpofe of being lung by 
ladies when weaving : — 

I. jorjiji cs cbambrcs fon fere, 

Une eftole et i. amit pcre 

De foie et d'or molt Juutilmcnt, 

Si i fait ententcvemcnt 

Mainte croijete et mainte ejloile, 

Et dijl cefte chanchon a toilc. — Roman de la Vlolutte, p. 1X3. 

In one of Rutebeui's fabliaux, a woman makes excufe for being up late 

at 



2 3 8 



Hijiory of "Domejiic Manners 



at night that fhe was anxious to finifh a piece of linen cloth fhe was 
weaving : — 

Sire, fet-e lie, il me faut tr aimer 
A une toile que jefais. 

And in another fabliau, that of "Guillaume au Faucon,"a young "bacheler" 





No, 1 68. Embroidery. 



No. 169. A Lady Carding. 



entering fuddenly the chamber of the ladies, finds them all occupied in 
embroidering a piece of filk with the enfigns of the lord of the cafile. 
Embroidery, indeed, was a favourite occupation : a lady thus employed 




No. 170. A Lady Spinning. 

is reprefented in our cut No. 168, taken from a richly illuminated 
manufcript of the fourteenth century, in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. Reg. 
2 B. vii.) The ladies, too, not only made up the cloths into drelfes and 

articles 



and Sentiments. 



2 39 




articles of other kinds, but they were exteniively employed in the various 

proceffes of making the cloth itfelf. Our cut No. 169, taken from a 

manufcript of about the fame period (MS. Reg. 10 E. i\\), reprefents 

the procefs of carding the wool ; and the fame 

manufcript furniihes us with another cut (No. 

170), in which a lady appears in the employment 

of (pinning it into yarn. Our next cut (No. 171), 

taken from an illumination in an early French 

translation of the Metamorphofes of Ovid (in the 

National Library, MS. 6986), reprefents three 

ladies (intended for the three Fates) employed in 

thefe domeftic occupations, and will give us a 

notion of the implements they ufed. 

Domeftic animals, particularly dogs and birds, & ' * ?*■ The Three Fan. 
were favourite companions of the ladies in their chambers. A favourite 
falcon had frequently its "perche" in a corner of the chamber; and in 
the illuminations we fometimes fee the lady feated with the bird on her 
wrift. Birds in cages are alfo not unfre- 
quently alluded to through the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries. In the romance 
of " La Violette" a tame lark plays rather 
an important part in the ftory. Our cut 
No. 172, where we fee two birds in a cage 
together, and which is curious for the form 
of the cage, is given by Willemin from a 
manufcript of the fourteenth century at 
Paris. The hawk, though ufually kept 
only for hunting, fometimes became a pet, 
and pcrfons carried their hawks on the rift 
even in focial parties within doors. The 
jay is fpoken of as a cage-bird. The parrot, 
under the name of papejay, popinjay, or papingay, is alfo often fpoken of 
during the middle ages, although, in all probability, it was wry rare. The 
favourite talking-bird was the pie, or magpie, which often plays .1 verj 

remarkable 




No. 172. Birds Encaged. 



240 Hiftory of 'Dome flic Manners 

remarkable part in mediaeval flories. The aptnefs of this bird for imitation 
led to an exaggerated eftimate of its powers, and it is frequently made to 
give information to the hufband of the weakneffes of his wife. Several 
mediaeval ftories turn upon this fuppofed quality. The good chevalier 
de la Tour-Landry, in his book of counfels to his daughters, compofed in 
the fecond half of the fourteenth century, tells a ftory of a magpie as a 
warning of the danger of indulging in gluttony. "I will tell you," he 
fays, " a ftory in regard to women who eat dainty morfels in the abfence 
of their lords. There was a lady who had a pie in a cage, which talked 
of everything which it faw done. Now it happened that the lord of the 
houfehold preferved a large eel in a pond, and kept it very carefully, in 
order to give it to fome of his lords or of his friends, in cafe they ihould 
vifit him. So it happened that the lady faid to her female attendant 
that it would be good to eat the great eel, and accordingly they eat it, 
and agreed that they would tell their lord that the otter had eaten it. 
And when the lord returned, the pie began to fay to him, ' My lord, my 
lady has eaten the eel.' Then the lord went to his pond, and miffed his 
eel ; and he went into the houfe, and afked his wife what had become 
of it. She thought to excufe herfelf eafily, but he faid that he knew all 
about it, and that the pie had told him. The refult was that there was 
great quarrelling and trouble in the houfe ; but when the lord was gone 
away, the lady and her female attendant went to the pie, and plucked all 
the feathers from his head, faying, 'You told about the eel.' And fo 
the poor pie was quite bald. But from that time forward, when it faw 
any people who were bald or had large foreheads, the pie faid to them, 
' Ah ! you told about the eel ! ' And this is a good example how no 
woman ought to eat any choice morfel by gluttony without the know- 
ledge of her lord, unlefs it be to give it to people of honour j for this 
lady was afterwards mocked and jeered for eating the eel, through the 
pie which complained of it." The reader will recognife in this the 
origin of a much more modern ftory. 

One of the ftories in the celebrated mediaeval collection, entitled 
"The Seven Sages," alio turns upon the talkative qualities of this bird. 
There was a burgher who had a pie which, on being queftioned, related 

whatever 



and Sentiments. 24: 



whatever it had feen, for it fpoke uncommonly well the language of the 
people. Now the burgher's wife was a good-for-nothing woman, and as 
foon as her huiband went from home about bufinefs, llie lent for her 
friend out of the town ; but the pie, which was a great favourite of the 
burgher, told him all the goings on when he returned, and the huiband 
knew that it always fpoke the truth. So he became acquainted with his 
wife's conduct. One day the burgher went from home, and told his wife 
he fhould not return that night, and llie immediately lent for her friend; 
but he was afraid to enter, for " the pie was hung up in his cage on a 
high perch in the middle of the porch of the houfe." Encouraged, how- 
ever, by the lady, the friend ventured in, and palled through the hall to 
the chamber. The pie, which faw him pafs, and knew him well on 
account of fome tricks he had played upon it, called out, " Ah, fir ! you 
who are in the chamber there, why don't you pay your vifits when the 
mafter is at home?" It laid no more all the day, but the lady fet her 
wits to work for a ftratagem to avert the danger. So when night came, 
fhe called her chamber-maiden, and gave her a great jug full of water, 
and a lighted candle, and a wooden mallet, and about midnight the 
maiden mounted on the top of the houfe, and began to beat with the 
mallet on the laths, and from time to time fhowed the light through 
the crevices, and threw the water right down upon the pie till the bird 
was wet all over. Next morning the huiband came home, and began to 
queftion his pie. " Sir," it laid, " my lady's friend has been here, and 
flayed all night, and is only juft gone away. I faw him go." Then the 
huiband was very angry, and was going to quarrel with his wife, bul 
the pie went on — "Sir, it has thundered and lightened all night, and 
the rain was fo heavy that I have been wet through." " Nay," faid the 
huiband, " it has been fine all night, without rain or ftorm." " Yon lie," 
faid the crafty dame, " you fee how much your bird is to be believed. 
Why fhould you put more faith in him when he tells tales about me, 
than when he talks fo knowingly about the weather?" Thru tin- burgher 
thought he had been deceived, and turning his wrath upon the pie, drew 
it from the cage and twirled its neckj but he had no foonerdone lb than, 
looking up, he faw how the laths had been deranged. So he gol a 

1 1 ladder. 



242 Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 

ladder, mounted on the roof, and difcovered the whole myftery. If, fays 
the ftory, he had not been fo hafty, the life of his bird would have been 
faved. In the Englifh verfion of this feries of tales, printed by Weber, 
the pie's cage is made to hang in the hall : — 

The burgeis hadde a pie in his hallc, 
That couthe telle tales alle 
Apertlich (openly), in French langage, 
And heng in a fair e cage. 

In the other Englifh vernon, edited by the author of this work for the 

Percy Society, the bird is faid to have been, not a pie, but a "popynjay," 

or parrot, and there are other variations in it which fhow that it had been 

taken more dire<5tly from the Oriental original, in which, as might be 

expected, the bird is a parrot. 

Among the animals mentioned as pets we fometimes find monkeys. 

One of the Latin ftories in the collection printed 

by the Percy Society, tells how a ruffle, entering 

the hall of a certain nobleman, feeing a monkey 

dreffed in the fame fuit as the nobleman's family, 

and fuppoflng, as its back was turned, that it was 

one of his fons, began to addrefs it with all fuitable 

reverence ; but when he faw that it was only a 

monkey chattering at him, he exclaimed, "A curfe 

upon you ! I thought you had been Jenkin, my 

,, r ^, 7*„ lord's fon."'* The favourite quadruped, however, 

No. 173. Lady and Dog. \ . 

has always been the dog, of which feveral kinds are 
mentioned as lady's pets. Chaucer tells us of his priorefs, — 

Of /male houndes hadde fc he, that Jche fedde 

With rofiudfieijjh and my Ik and ivaftel breed. — Cant. Tales, 1. 147. 

Our cut No. 173, from a manufcript of the St. Graal, in the Britifh 

* The Latin original of this story is so quaint that it deserves to be given 
ipfjjimis -verbis. " De ruftico et fimia. Quidam aulam cujusdam nobilis intrans, 
vidensque simiam de secta filiorum vestitum, quia dorsum ad eum habebat, filiuni 
credidit esse domini, cui cum reverentia qua debuit loqueretur. Invenit esse simiam 
super eum cachinnantem, cui I lie, ' Maledicaris ! ' inquit, ' cred id i quod fuisses 
Jankyn Alius domini mei. 1 " — Latin Stories, p. 122. 

Mufeum 




and Sentiments. 



243 



Muieum (MS. Addit. No. 10,293, fol. 31), written in the thirteenth 
century, reprefents a queen feated in conversation, with her dog in her 
lap. The next cut (No. 174), from an illumination in the interefling 
manufcript of the Roman de Meliadus in the Britilh Muieum (MS. 
Addit. 12,228, fol. 310), belonging to the latter half of the fourteenth 
century (the reign of our Edward III.), reprefents the interior of a 
chamber, with two little dogs gamboling about. In the fmgular work 
Ln_n_[ 




No. 174. Interior of a Chamber. 

on domeftic economy, entitled the " Menagier de Paris," written about the 
year 1393, the lady of the houfehold is particularly recommended to think 
of the " chamber beafts," fuch as little dogs, the "chamber birds," &c, 
inasmuch as thefe creatures, not having the gift of fpeech, could not aik 
for themfelves.* I have printed in the " Reliquiae Antiquae" a curious 
Anglo-Norman poem, of the beginning of the fourteenth century, written 
as a fatire on the ladies of the time, who were too fond of their dogs, and 
fed them delicately, while the fervants were left to ihort commons 
(Reliq. Antiq. vol. i. p. i$$). Cats are feldom mentioned as pets. 



* Item, que par la dirte dame Agnes vous faciez principalment et diligemment 
penser cle vos bestes de chambre, comme petis chienne's, oiselets de chambre ; et 
aussi la beguine et vous pensez des autres oiseauls doinesclu's, car ils nc pevenl 
parler, et pour ce vous devez parler et penser pour eulx, se vous en avez. — (Mena- 
gier cle Paris, ii. 62.) 

except 



244 



Hijiory of ' Domeftic Manners 




No. 175. The Lady and her 
Cats. 



except of ill-famed old women. There was a prejudice againft them in 
the middle ages, and they were joined in people's imagination with 
witchcraft, and with other diabolical agencies. 
The accompanying group of an old lady and her 
cats (cut No. 175) is taken from a carving on one 
of the mijereres in the church of Minfler, in the 
Iile of Thanet. Curioufly enough, the Engliih 
" Rule of Nuns," of the earlier half of the thir- 
teenth century, forbids the nuns to keep any 
" beaft" but a cat. 

The chamber was, as might be expecled, 
more comfortably furniihed than the hall. The 
walls were covered with curtains, or tapeftry, 
whence this apartment is frequently termed in 
the fabliaux and romances the chamlre encortinee. The ftory of a fabliau 
printed in my " Anecdota Literaria" turns upon the facility with which a 
perfon might be concealed behind the " curtains" of the chamber. Befides 
a bench or ftool to lit upon, there was ufually a chair in the chamber. 
In the fabliau of the Bouchier d' Abbeville, the prieft's lady, when me rifes 
out of bed to drefs, is reprefented as placing herfelf in a chair — 

En le caiere fejt ajjijfe. 

In the early Engliih romance of " Horn," the lady, receiving a gentleman 
into her chamber, gives him a rich chair which would hold feven people, 
and which is covered, in true regal ftyle, with a baldekin : — 

The miri maiden, aljo fine 

As Hatherof into chamber come, 

Sche ivend (thought.) that it ivere Horn ; 
A riche cheir ivas undon, 
That fei-ven might Jit theron, 

Infwiche craft y-corn (chosen). 

A baudekin theron ivasfpred, 
Thider the maiden hadde him led 

Tojiten Mr beforn, 
Front (fruit) and jpices fche him bedc, 
Wine to drink, ivite and rede, 

Bothe of coppe and horn. 



Tin 



and Sentiments. 



2 45 



The chamber was especially diftinguKhed by Us fireplace and chimney. 
The form of the mediaeval fireplace is well-known from the numerous 
examples frail remaining in the chambers of our old caftles and manfion 
houfes. The fire was made on the hearth, upon iron dogs, which had 
often very ornamental forms. The old romances frequently reprefent 
people fitting round the chamber fireplace to hold private converfation. 
It was here alfo that the heads of the family, or individual members of it 
in their own chambers, affembled in the evening when no ceremonious 
feafting was going on. In a ftory in the text of the "Seven Sages," 
printed by Weber, a young married woman is reprefented fitting in the 
evening with her lord by the chamber firefide, attended by their fquire, 
and playing with a dog — 

The yonge le-vedi and hire lor a 
Sete an even by the fer (fire) ; 
Biforen hem Jtod herefquicr. 

The bichche lai in hire barm (bosom). — Weber, iii. 71. 

In "Gautier d'Aupais," when the young damfel fends for her mother, 
her meflenger finds the old lady fitting on a richly-worked counterpoint 
by a coal fire (probably of charcoal) — 

Sor une coutepointe owvre d^auqueton 

Tro-vafeant la dame lez i. feu de charbon. — Gauticr d'Aupais, i>. 25. 

In the romance of "Sir Degrevant," when the lady Myldore has lint for 
her lover to come privately to her chamber at night, ihe orders her 
maiden to prepare a fire, and place fagots of fir-wood to keep it burning — 



Damefcle, loke ther be 
A fuyre in the chymene'; 

Fagattus of fyrc-tre^ 

That fctchyd ivas yare ( formerly ).- 



A board is placed on treftles to form a table, and a dainty (upper is ferved, 
which the lady carves for her lover, and ihe further treats him with rich 
wines. In the romance of "Queen Berthe" (p. 102), three perKms, 
holding a fecret confultation in the chamber of one of their party, iii on 

carpets 



246 Hi ft or y of Domeftic Manners 

carpets {fur les tapis) ; but thefe were no doubt embroidered cloths thrown 
over the feats. Floor-carpets were fometimes ufed in the chambers, but 
this was uncommon, and they feem to have been more ufually, like the hall, 
flrewed with rufhes. It appears that fometimes, as a refinement in gaiety, 
flowers were mixed with the rufhes. In a fabliau in Meon (i. 75), a lady 
who expects her lover, lights a fire in the chamber, and fpreads rufhes and 
flowers on the floor — 

Vient a Poftel, lo feu efclaire, 
Jons etjlors efpandre par Va'ire, 

There was an efcrin, or cabinet, which flood againft the wall, which was 
often fo large that a man might conceal himfelf behind it. The plot of 
feveral mediaeval flories turns upon this circumftance. Chefls and coffers 
were alfo kept in the chamber 5 and it contained generally a fmall table, 
or at leaft the board and treflles for making one, which the lord or lady 
of the houfe ufed when they would dine or tup in private. The practice 
of thus dining or flipping privately in the chamber is not unfrequently 
alluded to in the old flories and romances. 

Supper, however, being the fecond meal in the day at which the 
whole houfehold met together, was generally a more public one, and was 
held, like the dinner, in the hall, and with much the fame forms and 
fervices. It was preceded and clofed by the fame wafhing of hands, and 
the table was almoft as plentifully covered with viands. After having 
wafhed, the company drank round, and it feems to have been the ufual 
cuftom, on leaving the flipper-table, to go immediately to bed, for people 
in general kept early hours. Thus, in one of the pious flories printed by 
Meon, in defcribing a royal fupper-party, we are told that, "when they 
had eaten and wafhed, they drunk, and then went to bed" — 

Slant orent mengie\fi la-verent, 
Puis burent, et couchier alerent. 

And in another ftory in the fame collection, the lady receives a ftranger 
to fupper in a very hofpitable manner — " when they had eaten leifurely, 
then it was time to go to bed" — 

Qant orent mengie par loijir, 
Si fu heme dealer gejir. 

Sometimes, 



and Sentiments. 247 



Sometimes, however, there were dancing and other amufements between 
tapper and bed-time. Thus, in the romance of " Sir Degrevant," — 

Ble-ve (quickly) to foper they dyght, 
Both fquiere and knyght ; 
They daunfed and re-volide that nyght, 
In hert 'were they blythe. 

In a fabliau published by Barbazan, on the arrival in a nobleman's caftle 
of a knight who is treated with efpecial courtefy, the knights and ladies 
dance after fupper, and then, at bed-time, they conducl; the vifitor into 
his bed-chamber, and drink with him there before they leave him : — 

Apres mengier, chafcuns comence 
De faire caroles et dance, 
Tant quilfu houre de couchier ; 
Puis anmainment le chevalier 
En fa chambre oil fait fu fon lit, 
Et la burent par grant delit ; 
Puis prinrent congie. 

Fruit was ufually eaten after fupper. In a fabliau of the thirteenth 
century, a noble vifitor having been received in the houfe of a knight, 
they go immediately to fnpper. "After they had done eating, they 
enjoyed themfelves in converfation, and then they had fruit," and it was 
only after this that they wafhed — 

Aprcs mengier fe font deduit 
De paroles, puisfi ont fruit. 

In the lay of the "Chevalier a I'EfpeV' Sir Gauwain takes, inftead of 
fupper, fruit and wine before he goes to bed. 

The cuftom of keeping early hours ftill prevailed, ami is very frequentl) 
alluded to. People are generally defcribed as riling with the fun. Such 
was the cafe with the king, in the romance of " Pa rife la Ducheffe" — 

Liir.dcmain par matin, quand folaus fu I Vi , 

Se leva li rots Hugues.-Pa.risi), ed. P. Paris, |>. 219. 

It was the cuftom, after riling, to attend fervice either in the church or 
in the private chapel. In the- hiftory of Fulke Fitz-Warine, Jofe de 

Dj ii.in. 



248 Hljlory of Domejiic Manners 

Dynan, in his caftle of Ludlow, rofe early in the morning, heard fervice 
in the chapel, after which he mounted to the top of the loftieft tower, to 
take a view of the country around, then defcended and " caufed the hern 
to be founded for warning." This was no doubt the fignal for the houfe- 
hold to affemble for breakfaft. In Chaucer's " Squyeres Tale," the 
king's guefts, after great feafting and caroufing at night, fleep till " prime 
large" in the morning, that is till fix o'clock, which is fpoken of in a 
manner which evidently intimates that they had considerably overilept 
themfelves. The princefs Canace had left her bed long before, and was 
walking with her maidens in the park. In the " Schipmannes Tale," too, 
the lady rifes very early in the morning, and takes her walk in the garden. 
In the curious "Book" of the Chevalier de la Tour Landry, we are told 
of a very pious dame whom he knew, whofe daily life was as follows : — 
She rofe early in the morning, had two friars and two or three chaplains 
in attendance to chant matins while fhe was rifing ; as foon as fhe left 
her chamber fhe went to her chapel, and remained in devotion in her 
oratory while they faid matins and one mafs, and then fhe went and 
dreffed and arrayed herfelf, after which fhe went to recreate herfelf in 
the garden or about the houfe 3 fhe then attended divine fervice again, 
and after it went to dinner ; and during the afternoon fhe vifited the fick, 
and in due time fupped, and after fupper fhe called her maitre d 'hotel, 
and made her houfehold arrangements for the following day. 

The hour of breakfaft is very uncertain, and appears not to have been 
fixed. The hour of dinner was, as already ftated, nine o'clock in the 
morning, or fometimes ten. In the lay of the "Mantel Mautaille," king 
Arthur is introduced on a grand feftival day refufing, according to his 
cuftom, to begin the dinner till fome "adventure" occurs, and the guefts 
wait till near " nonne," when the grand fenefchal, Sir Keux, takes upon 
himfelf to expoftulate, and reprefents that dinner had been ready a long 
time (piegd). Nonne is here probably meant for midday, or noon. The 
queen was in her chamber, greatly diftreffed at having to wait lb long for 
dinner. The regular hour of fupper appears to have been five o'clock in 
the afternoon, but when private it feems not to have been fixed to any 
particular hour. In fummer, at leaft, people appear ufually to have gone 

to 



and Sentiments. 249 



to bed when darknefs approached 5 and this was the time at which guetts 
ordinarily took their leave. Thus, at January's wedding-fealt, in Chaucer, 
we are told that — 

Night, ivit/i his mantel, that is dark and rude, 

Gan o-uerfprede themefperie aboute ,• 

For which departed is the lujli route 

Fro January, ivith thank on every fide, 

Hoom to her houfes lujlily thay ryde. — Cant. Tales, 1. 9GV2. 

We mull: not forget that thefe remaiks apply to the feafons of the year 
when days were long, for the fcenes of moll of thefe romances and tales 
are laid in the fpring and fummer months, and efpecially in May. We 
have much lefs information on the domeflic relations during winter. 

One reafon for keeping early hours was that candles and lamps were 
too expenfive to be ufed in profufion by people in general. Various 
methods of giving artificial light at night are 
mentioned, moft of which feem to have been 
confidered more or lefs as luxuries. At grand 
feftivals the light was often given by men hold- 
ing torches. In general, candles were ufed at 
fupper. The accompanying cut (No. 176), 
taken from the manufcript of the St. Graal 
already mentioned, reprefents a perfon lapping by No - *7 6 ' -A Supper. 

candlelight. In the fabliau of " La Borgoife d'Orliens," a lady, receiving 
her lover into her chamber, fpreads a table for him, and lights a great 
wax candle (grojj'e chandoile cle cire). 

Lighting in the middle ages was, indeed, erfe&ed, in a manner more 
or lefs refined, by means of torches, lamps, and candles. The candle, 
which was the moll; portable of them all, was employed in fmall and 
private evening parties; and, from an early period, it was ufed in the 
bed-chamber. For the table very handfome candlellicks were made, 
which were employed by people of rank, and wax-candles (cierges) were 
ufed on them. They were formed with an upright (pike (brocke), on 
which the candle was Hack, not, as now, placed in a focket. Tims, in a 
fcene in one of the fabliaux printed by J5arba/an, a good bourgeois has on 

k k his 




250 Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 

his fupper-table two candlefticks of filver, "very fair and handfome," 
with wax-candles — 

Defor la table ot deus broifim, 
Ou il a-voit cierges, Sargent, 
Molt efioient bel et gent. — Barbazan, vol. iv. p. Hi, 

So in the romance of "La Violette," when the count Lifiart arrives at 
the caftle of duke Gerart, on the approach of bedtime, two men-fervants 
make their appearance, each carrying a lighted cierge, or wax-candle, 
and thus they lead him to his chamber — 

At ant lor -vinrent doi Jergant, 

Chafcuns tenolt j. cerge ardant ; 

he conte menerent couchhr. — La Violette, p. 30. 

This, however, appears to have been done as a mark of honour to the 
gueft, for, even in ducal catties common candles appear to have been in 
ordinary ufe. In a bedroom fcene in a fabliau printed by Meon (torn. i. 
p. 268), in which the younger ladies of the duke's family and their 
female attendants flept all in beds in one room, they have but one candle 
(chandoile) , and that is attached to the wood of the bed of the duke's 
daughter, fo that it would appear to have had no candleftick. One of 
the damfels, who was a ftranger, and lefs familiar than the others, was 
unwilling to take off her chemife until the light was extinguiihed, for it 
mufi be remembered that it was the general cuflora to fleep in bed quite 
naked, and the daughter of the duke, whofe bedfellow fhe was to be, 
blew the candle out — 

Rofehe tantojl la soufla, 
Qua pejponde ejioit atachie. 

Blowing out the candle was the ordinary manner of extinguilhing it. In 
the "Menagier de Paris," or inftru&ions for the management of a gen- 
tleman's houfehold, compiled in the latter half of the fourteenth century, 
the lady of the houfe is told, after having each night afcertained that the 
houfe is properly clofed and all the fires covered, to fee all the fervants to 
bed, and to take care that each had a candle in a " fiat-bottomed candle- 
flick," at fome diftance from the bed, "and to teach them prudently to 

extinguifh 



and Sentiments. 



2 5 



extinguifh their candles before they go into their bed with the mouth, 
or with the hand, and not with their chemife," i. e., they were to blow 
their candle out, or put it out with their fingers, not to extinguifh it by 
throwing their fhifts upon it — another allufion to the practice of fleeping 
naked.* Extinguilhers had not yet come into general ufe. People went 
to bed with a candle placed in a candleftick of a different defcription 
from that ufed at table ; and we learn from a ftory in the " Menagier de 
Paris" that it was cuftomary for the fervant or fervants who had charge 
of the candles, to accompany them into their bedroom, remain with 
them till they were in bed, and then carry the candles away. Candles 
were, however, ufually left in the chamber or bedroom all night ; 
and there was frequently a fpike, or candleftick, attached to the chimney ; 




77. The Cellarer in a Panic. 



as iii the fabliau juft quoted there was, no doubt, a fimilar (pike 
attached to the wood-work of the bed. The ftick, whether fixed or 
movable, was made for convenience in placing the candle in the 
chamber, and not for the purpofe of carrying it about; for the latter 
purpofe, it appears to have been generally taken oil' the Hick, and carried 
in the hand. Our cut No. 177, taken from one of the caned lialls of 



* Et aycz fait adviser par avant, qu'ils aient chascun loing de son lit chandelier 
a platine pour mettre sa chandelle, et les aiez fait introduire sagement de I'esraindre 
a la bouche 011 ;i la main avant qu'ils entrent en leur lit, et nun mie 3 la chemise. — 
(Menagier de Paris, ii. 71.) 

the 



2 5 2 



Hi/lory of Domejiic Ma?2ners 



the chapel of Winchefter fchool, reprefents an individual, perhaps the 
cellarer or fteward, who has gone into the cellar with a candle, which he 
carries in this manner, and is there terrified by the appearance of hob- 
goblins. In the fabliau of the " Chevalier a la Corbeille," an old duena, 
employed to watch over her young mifirefs, being difturbed in the night, 
is obliged to take her candle, and go into the kitchen to light it ; from 
whence we may fuppofe that it was the cuftom to keep the kitchen fire 
in all night. 

An old poem on the troubles of houfekeeping, printed by M. Jubinal 
in his " Nouveau Recueil de Contes," enumerates 
candles and a lantern among the neceffaries of a houfe- 
hold— 

Orfaut chandeles et lanterne. 




No. 178. Man ivith 
Lantern. 



A manufcript of the thirteenth century in the French 
National Library (No. 6g$6) contains an illumination, 
which has furnifhed us with the accompanying cut 
(No. 178), reprefenting a man holding a lantern of the 
form then in ufe, and lanterns are not unfrequently 
mentioned in old writers. 

It appears to have been a common cuftom, at leaft 
among the better clafles of fociety, to keep a lamp in the chamber to 
give light during the night. In one of the fabliaux printed in Meon, 
a man entering the chamber of a knight's lady, finds it lit by a lamp 
which was ufually left burning in it — 

Une lampe avo'it en la chambre, 
Par cojiume ardoir ifiaut. 

In the Englifh romance of •' Sir Eglamour," feveral lamps are defcribed as 
burning in a lady's chamber — 

Aftur fopur, as y yoiv telle, 

He ivendyd to chaumbur ivith Cryflyabelle , 

There laumpus ivere brennyng bryght. 

We may fuppofe, notwithstanding thefe words, that a lamp gave but a 
dim light ; and accordingly we are told in another fabliau that there was 

little 









and Sentiments. 








2 53 


little light, 


or, 


as 


it is expreffed in the original, ' 


none," in a 


chamber 


where noth 


ing 


but 


a lamp was burning, — 

En la chambre lumiere not, 
Hors cfun mortier qu'duec ardok, 
Point de clarte ne lor rendoit. 










In the accompan) 
manufcript of the 


ing cut (No. 179), taken from an 
fourteenth century, in the Nationa 1 


illumination 
Library in 


in a 
Paris 




No. 179. A Bedroom Chamber Scene. 

(No. 6988), a nun, apparently, is arranging her lamp before going 
to bed. The lamp here confifts of a little bafin of oil, in which, no 
doubt, the wick floated ; but the ufe of the Hand under it is not eafily 
explained. 

Lamps were ufed where a light was wanted in a room for a long 
time, becaufe they lafted longer without requiring (huffing. The lamps 
of the middle ages were made ufually on the plan of tholi- of' the Romans, 
confifting, as in the foregoing example, of a imall vefie] of" earthenware 
or metal, which was filled with oil, and a wick placed in it. This lamp 
was placed on a (land, or was fometimes fufpended on a beam, or perch, 
or againft the wall. We have an example of this in the preceding cul 
(No. 1 79), which explains the term mortier (mortar) of the fabliau, it 

was 



2 54 



Hifiory of Domejiic Manners 



was a wick fwinging in oil in a bafin. Our cut No. 180, taken from a 
manufcript of the fourteenth century in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Harl., 
No. 1227), reprefents a row of lamps of rather curious form, made to be 
fufpended. In our next cut (No. 181), from a manufcript of the fame 




80. Mediaval Lamps. 

date (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii.), we have lamps of a fomewhat iimilar form, 
made to be carried in the hand. 

Torches were ufed at greater feffivals, and for occafions where it was 
neceflary to give light to very large halls full of company. They were 




Men carrying Lamps, 



ufually held in the hand by fervants, but were fometimes placed againft 
the wall in holds made to receive them. Torches were not unfrequently 
ufed to give light to the chamber alio. In one of the llories of the 
" Seven Sages," a man, bringing a perfon in fecret to the king's chamber, 

" blewe 



and Sentiments. 255 



"blewe out the torche," in order to cauie perfect darknefs (Weber, 
iii. 63)5 and in the early Englifh romance of " Sir Degrevant" (Weber, 
iii. 213), where light is wanted in a lady's chamber, it is obtained by 
means of the torches. 

There were other means of giving light, on a ftill greater fcale, which 
I ihall defcribe in a fubiequent chapter, when treating of the fifteenth 
century. 



256 Hi/lory of Domeftic Manners 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BED AND ITS FURNITURE. THE TOILETTE ; BATHING. CHESTS 

AND COFFERS IN THE CHAMBER. THE HUTCH. USES OF RINGS. 

COMPOSITION OF THE FAMILY. FREEDOM OF MANNERS. SOCIAL 

SENTIMENTS, AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 

IT was now a matter of pride to have the bed furnifhed with handibme 
curtains and coverings. Curtains to beds were fo common, that 
being "under the curtain" was ufed as an ordinary periphrahs for being 
in bed 3 but thefe curtains appear to have been fufpended to the ceiling 
of the chamber, with the bedftead behind them. With regard to the 
bed itfelf, there was now much more refinement than when it was 
limply fluffed with ftraw. Beds among the rich were made with down 
(duvet) ; in the " Roman de la Violette" we are told of a bed made of 
bofu — perhaps of flocks. From the vocabulary compofed by Alexander 
Neckam early in the thirteenth century, we learn that the bed was 
covered much in the fame way as at prefent. Firft, a "quilte" was 
fpread over the bed ; on this the bolfter was placed ; over this was laid a 
" quilte poynte " or "raye" (courtepointe, or counterpane) ; and on this, 
at the head of the bed, was placed the pillow. The iheets were then 
thrown over it, and the whole was covered with a coverlet, the common 
material of which, according to Neckam, was green fay, though richer 
materials, and even valuable furs, were ufed for this purpofe. In the 
"Lai del Defire," we are told of a quilt (coilte), made in checker-wife, of 
pieces of two different forts of rich fluff, which feems to have been con- 
fidered as fomething extremely magnificent — 

Sur on bon lit pert apuiie ; 

La coilte fu a efchckers 

De deus p allies benjaiz e chers. 

Among all claffes the appearance of the bed feems to have been a 

fubject 



and Sentiments. 257 



iubjeft of conliderable pride, no doubt from the circumftance of the bed- 
room being a place for receiving vifitors. There were fometimes two or 
more beds in the fame room, and vifitors flept in the fame chamber with 
the hoft and hoflefs. Beds were alfo made for the occafion, without 
bedfteads, fometimes in the hall, at others In the chamber befide the 
ordinary bed, or in fome other room. The plots of many mediaeval 
ftories turn on thefe circumftances. People therefore kept extra materials 
for making the beds. In the " Roman du Meunier d'Arleux," when a 
maiden comes as an unexpected vifitor, a place is chofen for her by the 
fide of the fire, and a foft bed is laid down, with very expenfive (heels, 
and a coverlet " warm and furred " — 

Kicute mole, linchex molt elder, 
Et cover toir chaut etforre". 

One cuftom continued to prevail during the whole of this period, — that 
of lleeping in bed entirely naked. So many allufions to this practice 
occur in the old writers, that it is hardly neceflary to fay more than ftate 
the fa6t. Not unfrequently this cuftom is ftill more ftrongly exprefied by 
ftating that people went to bed as naked as they were born ; as in fome 
moral lines in the " Reliquiae Antiquae" (ii. 15), againft the pride of the 
ladies, who are told that, however gay may be their clothing during the 
day, they will lie in bed at night as naked as they were born. It is true 
that in fome inftances in the illuminations perfons are feen in bed with 
fome kind of clothing on, but this was certainly an exception to the rule, 
and there is generally fome particular reafon for it. Thus, in the " Roman 
de la Violette" (p. 31), the lady Oriant excites the furprife of her duefia 
by going to bed in a chemife, and is obliged to explain her reafon for fo 
Angular a practice, namely, her defire to conceal a mark on her body. 
Our cut No. 182, taken from the romance of the St. Graal, in the Britifti 
Mufeum (MS. Addit. No. 10,292, fol. 21, v°), reprefents a king and 
queen in bed, both naked. The crowns on their heads are a mere con- 
ventional method of ftating their rank: kings and queens were not in 
the habit of lleeping in bed with their crowns on their heads. In the 
next cut (No. 183), taken from a manufcript of the romance of the 

1. 1. "Quniiv 



258 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



"Quatre Fils d'Aymon," of the latter part of the fourteenth century, in 
the National Library in Paris (No. 6970), there is mil lefs room left for 




No. 182. King and Queen in Bed. 

doubt on the fubjecl. The people ieem to be fleeping in a public 
hoftelry, where the beds are made in receffes, not unlike the berths in a 




No. 183. Night Scene in a Hojtelry. 

modern fteamer ; the man on liorfeback is fuppofed to be outride, and 

his 



and Sentiments. 



259 



his arrival has given alarm to a man who was in bed, and who is efcaping 
without any kind of clothing. In the Englilh romance of " Sir Ifumbras," 
the caflle of Ifumbras is burnt to the ground in the night, and his lady 
and three children efcaped from their beds 3 when he hurried to the (pot, 
he found them without clothing or fhelter — 

A dolefulle fyghte the knyghte gane fee 
Of his ivyfe and his childir three, 

That fro the fyre iverefede; 
Alle als nakede als thay lucre borne 
Stode togedir undir a thorne, 

Braydcde O'zvte of thaire bedd. 

Curioufly enough, while fo little care was taken to cover the body, the 
head was carefully covered at night, not with a nightcap, but with a 
kerchief (couvrechief) , which was wrapped round it. 

The practice of warm-bathing prevailed very generally in all clafles of 
fociety, and is frequently alluded to in the mediaeval romances and ttories. 
For this purpofe a large bathing-tub was ufed, the ordinary form of 
which is reprefented in the annexed cut (No. 184), taken from the 




84. A Lady Bathing. 



manufcript of the St. Graal, of the thirteenth century, in the Britith 
Mufeum (MS. Addit. No. 10,292, fol. 266). People fometimes bathed 
immediately after rifing in the morning; and we find the bath ufed after 
dinner, and before going to bed. A bath was alio often prepared for a 

\ ifitor 



260 



Hi/lory of "Domejiic Manners 




No. 185. Lady at her Toilette. 



vifitor on his arrival from a journey 5 and, what feems mil more lingular, 
in the numerous ftories of amorous intrigues, the two lovers ufually begin 
their interviews by bathing together. 

Our cut No. 185, from another volume of the manufcript lafl quoted 
(MS. Addit. No. 10,293, fol. 266), reprefents a lady at her toilette. It 
is a fubjecf on which our information at 
this period is not very abundant. The 
round mirror of metal which the is em- 
ploying was the common form during the 
middle ages, and was no doubt derived 
from the ancients. The details of the 
ladies' toilette are not often defcribed, but 
the contemporary moralifts and fatirifts 
condemn, in rather general terms, and evidently with more bitternefs 
than was called for, the pains taken by the ladies to adorn their 
perfons. They are accufed of turning their bodies from their natural 
form by artificial means, alluding to the ufe of Hays, which appear 
to have been firfr. employed by the Anglo-Norman ladies in the twelfth 
century. They are further accufed of plucking out fuperfluous hairs from 
their faces and eyebrows, of dyeing their hair, and of painting their faces. 
The chevalier de la Tour-Landry (chap. 76) tells his daughters that the 
whole intrigue between king David and the wife of Uriah arofe out of 
the circumftance of the lady combing her hair at an open window where 
fhe could be feen from without, and fays that it was a punifhment for the 
too great attention fhe gave to the adornment of her head. The toilette 
of the day feems to have been completed at the firft riling from bed in 
the morning. There are fome picturefque lines in the Englifh metrical 
romance of " Alifaunder," which defcribe the morning thus: — - 

In a moretyde (morrow-tide) hit <was ,• 

T/ieo dropes hongyn on the gras ,• 

Theo may denes lokyn in the glas, 

For to tyffen (adorn) hear e fas. — Weber, i. 1U9. 

The chamber, as it has been already intimated, was properly fpeaking 
the women's apartment, though it was very accelrible to the other fex. 

It 



and Sentiments. 



26 



It was ufually the place for private converfation, and we often hear of 
perfons entering the chamber for this purpol'e, and in this cafe the bed 
feems to have ferved ufually for a feat. Thus, in the romance of 
" Eglamour," when, after fupper, Chriftabelle led the knight into her 

chamber — 

That lady ivas not for to hydc> 
Schefctt hym on hur beddysfyde, 

And ludcomyd home thet knyght. 

Again, in a fabliau printed by Meon, a woman of a lower grade, wifhing 
to make a private communication to a man, invites him into her chamber, 
and they fit on the bed to converfe — 

En tine chanbre andui en vent, 
Defor un lit ajls fe font. 

And in the fabliau of " Guillaume au Faucon," printed by Barbazan, 
Guillaume, vifiting the lady of a knight in her chamber, finds her leated 




No. 186. Converfation in the Chamber. 

on the bed, and he immediately takes a feat by her fide to converfe with 
her. In the illuminated manufcripts, fcenes of this kind occur fre- 
quently; but in the fourteenth century, inllead of being feated on the 
bed, the perfons thus converfing fit on a bench which runs along the fide 
of the bed, and feems to belong to the bedftead. A fcene of this kind is 

reprefented 



262 



Hiftory of "Domejiic Manners 



reprefented in our cut No. 186 (taken from a manufcript of the romance 
of " Meliadus," in the Britifh Mufeum, MS. Addit. No. 12,228, fol. 312), 
which is a good reprefentation of a bed of the fourteenth century. A 
lady has introduced a king into her chamber, and they are converging 
privately, feated on the bench of the bed. In fome of thefe illumina- 
tions, the perfons converting are feated on the bed, with their feet on 
the bench. 

The illuminators had not yet learned the art of reprefenting things in 
detail, and they (till too often give us mere conventional reprefentations 
of beds, yet we fee enough to convince us that the bedfteads were already 




No. 187. Taking Clothes from the Chef. 



made much more elaborately than formerly. Betides the bench at the 
fide, we find them now with a hutch (huche) or locker at the foot, in 
which the poffeffor was accuflomed to lock up his money and other 
valuables. This hutch at the foot of the bed is often mentioned in the 
fabliaux and romances. Thus, in the fabliau "Du chevalier a la Robe 
Vermeille," a man, when he goes to bed, places his robe on a hutch at 
the toot of the bed — 

Sur une huche aus fiez du lit 
A cil toute fa robe mife. 

Another, 



and Sentiments. 



263 



Another, having extorted fome money from a prieft, immediately puts it 
in the hutch — 

Lcs deniers a mis en la huche. 

The hutch was indeed one of the moft important articles of furniture in 
the mediaeval chamber. All portable objects of intrinfic value or utility 
were kept in boxes, becaufe they were thus ready for moving and taking 
away in cafe of danger, and becaufe in travelling people carried much of 
their movables of this defcription about with them. Hence the ufes of 
the hutch or cheft were very numerous and diverfified. It was ufual 
to keep clothes of every defcription in a cheft, and illuftrations of this 
practice are met with not uncommonly in the illuminated manuscripts. 
One of them is given in our cut No. 187, taken from an illumination in 
a manufcript of the fourteenth century, given by "Willemin. Jewels, 
plate, perfonal ornaments of all kinds, and 
all defcriptions of " treafure," were fimi- 
larly locked up in chefts. In our cut 
No. 188, taken alfo from a manufcript in 
the Britilh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii., 
of the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
tury), a man appears in the a6t of deposit- 
ing in a cheft fibulae or brooches, rings, 
buttons, and other objects, and a large 
veflel probably of filver. Our cut No. 
189, from a manufcript in the National 
Library in Paris (No. 6956), reprefents a 
mifer examining the money in his hutch, 
which is here detached from a bed ; but 

in fome other illuminations, a hutch of much the fame form appears 
attached to the bed foot. In Anglo-Saxon the coffer was called a he, 
whence our word Inciter is derived ; or a cyjie, our cheft; or an arc: 
from the Anglo-Normans we derive the words hutch (huche) and coffer 
(cqffre). The Anglo-Saxons, as we have fhown in a former chapter 
(p. 79), like our forefathers of a later period, kepi their treafures in 
lockers or hutches. In the "Legend of St. Juliana," an Anglo-Saxon 

poem 




88. The Treafure Cheft. 



264 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



poem in the Exeter Book, it is remarked in proof of the richnefs of a 
chieftain : — ■ 

Although he riches 

in his treafure-lockers, 

jeiveh innumerable, 

fojfejfed upon earth. — Exeter Bonk, p. 245. 



\>eah \>e feoh-gejirt 

under hord-locan, 
hyrfta unrim, 
ahte ofer eor\>an. 



Among the Anglo-Saxons the lady of the houfehold had the charge 
of the coffers. In one of the laws of Cnut relating to robberies, it is 
declared that " if any man bring a ftolen thing home to his cot, and he 
be detected, it is juft that the owner have what he went for ; and unlefs 
it has been brought under his wife's key-lockers {cceg-locan) , let her be 
clear ; for it is her duty to keep the keys of them, namely, her ftorehoufe 




A Mifer and his Hoard. 



(hord-ern), and her cheft (cyjle), and her box (tege)." (Cnut's Laws, 
No. 180.) 

In the old metrical romances, when a town is taken and lacked, the 
plunderers are defcribed as hurrying to the chambers, to rifle the chefts 
and coffers, which were kept there. Thus, in the romance of the " Mort 
de Garin," when Fromont's town is taken by the followers of the hero 
of the romance, "the Lorrains," we are told, "haflened to deftroy the 
town ; there you might fee many a chamber broken open, and many a 
hutch burft and torn, where they found robes, and filver, and glittering 
gold" — 

Lohere?i 



and Sentiments. 



265 



Loheren poignent por It bore defrocl 
La ■veijjie% mainte chambre brijier, 
Et mainte huche effondrer et pereier, 
Et trcvent robes, et argent, et or mier. — Mort de Garin, p. 168. 

So in the romance of" Garin/' of which that jufl quoted is the fequel, 
on a fimilar occafion, " there you might fee them rob the great halls, 
and break open the chambers, and force the coffers (efcr'uis)," — 

La 've'ijjie% les grans falles rober ; 

Chambres brifier, et les cfcrins forcier. — Garin le Loherain, torn. i. p. 197. 

Further on, in the fame romance, the fair Beatrix, addreffing her hulband, 
the duke Begues, tells him that he has gold and lilver in his coders, — 

Or et argent a-vez en -vos efcrins. — lb., torn. ii. p. 218. 

Money was, indeed, commonly kept in the huche or coffer. In the 
fabliau of " Conftant Duhamel," when Conftant is threatened by the 




No. 190. Jofcph buying up the Corn. 

forefter, who had detained his oxen on the pretence that they had been 
found trefpaJling, he tells him that he was ready to redeem them, as he 
had a hundred fols of money in his hutch by his bed — 

yd en ma huche Icz mon lit, 

Cent fols de deniers a -vojlre ocs. — Barbazan, iii. 307. 

In the accompanying cut (No. 190), from a manufcripl oi the four- 
Mi m teenth 



266 Hi/lory of Dome/lie Manners 

teenth century in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), Jofeph is 
reprefented counting out the money from his huche, to buy up the corn 
of Egypt, during the years of plenty. 

The chefts were kept in the chambers, as being the moll retired and 
fecure part of the houfe, and, from the terms in which the breaking open 
of the chambers is fpoken of in the foregoing extracts, we are led to 
fuppofe that the chambers themfelves were ufually locked. The ordinary 
place for the chefts or hutches, or, at leaft, of the principal cheft, was by 
the tide, or more ufually at the foot, of the bed. We have juft feen that 
this was the place in which Conftant Duhamel kept his huche. Under 
thefe circumftances it was very commonly ufed for a feat, and is often 
introduced as fuch, both in the literature of the middle ages, and in the 
illuminations of the manufcripts. In the romance of " Garin" (torn. i. 
p. 214), the king's meffenger finds the 
count of Flanders, Fromont, in a tent, 
according to one manufcript, feated on 
a coffer (for un coffre ou fe Jiji). So, 
alfo, in the " Roman de la Violette," 
p. 25, the heroine and her treacherous 
gueft are reprefented as feated upon 
"a coffer banded with copper" (for j. 
coffre bende de coivre). Our cut No. 191, 
taken from one of the engravings in the 
No - I91 " Sitti * great work of Willemin, reprefents a 

fcribe thus feated on a coffer or huche, and engaged apparently in writing 
a letter. Our next cut (No. 192), taken from a manufcript of the four- 
teenth century in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. Reg. 15 E. vi.), reprefents 
a lady and gentleman, feated on apparently a coffer, the former of whom 
is prefenting a ring to the other. 

This latter object, the ring, acts alfo a very frequent and very impor- 
tant part in the focial hiftory of the middle ages. A ring was often given 
as a token of affection between lovers, as may perhaps be intended by the 
fubject of our laft cut, or between relatives or friends. In the romance 
of " Widukind," torn. ii. p. 20, the queen gives her ring to her lover in 

a 




and Sentiments. 



267 



a fecret interview in her tent. So, in the romance of " Horn," the lady 
Rigmel gave her lover, Horn, a ring as a token. It was often, moreover, 
given not merely as a token of remembrance, but as a means of recog- 
nition. In the well-known early Engliih romance of " Sir Triilram," 
the mother of the hero, dying in childbirth of him after his father had 




No. 192. The Token of the Ring. 

been flain, gives a ring to the knight to whole care fhe entrufted the 
infant, as a token by which his parentage fhould be known when he 
grew up : — 

A ring of riche heive 

Than hadde that Icvcdi (lady) j re; 
Sc/ie toke (gave) it Rouhand trciue, 

Mr fotie fchc bad it be ; 
Mi brother tve/e it kneive^ 
Mi fader yaf it me. 



This ring leads fubfequently to the : 
king Mark. In the romance of 
Romances," vol. ii. p. $$$), the her 



jognhion of Trilbani by his uncle, 
Iponndon" (Weber's "Metrical 
limihirlv receives from his mother 
a ring, which was to be a token of recognition to his illegitimate brother. 
So, in the romance, Horn makes himfelf known in the fequel to Rigmel, 
by dropping the ring fhe had given him into the drinking-horn which (he 
was ferving round at a feaft. Rings were often given to meflengers as 
credentials, or were ufed for the fame purpofe as letters of ininHlinii.ui. 
In the romance of " Floire and Blanceflor" (p. 55), the young hero, "ii 

his 



268 Hiftory of Domeftic Maimers 

his way to Babylon, arrives at a bridge, the keeper of which has a brother 
in the great city, to whofe hofpitality he withes to recommend Floire, 
and for that purpofe he gives him his ring. "Take this ring to him," he 
fays, "and tell him from me to receive yon in his beft manner." The 
meflage was attended with complete fuccefs. In our cut No. 193, taken 
from a manufcript of the fourteenth century in the Britifh Mufeum 
(MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), the meiTenger arrives with the letter of which 
he is the bearer, and at the fame time exhibits a ring in the place of 
credentials. 

There was another circumftance which gave value and importance to 
rings in the middle ages. Not only might rings be charmed by the 




No. 193. The Deli-very of the Ring. 

power of the magician, but it was an article of general belief that the 
engraved ftones of the ancients, which were found commonly enough on 
old fites, and even the precious ftones in general, without any engraving, 
pofletTed extraordinary virtues, the benefit of which was imparted to thofe 
who carried them on their perfons. In the romance of "Melufine" 
(p. 357), the heroine, when about to leave the houfe of her hutband, 
gives him two rings, and fays, " My fweet love, you fee here two rings of 
gold, which have both the fame virtue ; and know well for truth, that fo 
long as you poiTefs them, or one of them, you fhall never be overcome 
in pleading nor in battle, if your caufe be rightful ; and neither you nor 
others who may poflefs them, fhall ever die by any weapons." In a ftory 

among 



and Seyittments. 269 



among the collection of the " Gefta Romanorum," edited by fir Frederic 
Madden for the Roxburghe Club (p. 150), a father is made, on his death- 
bed, to give to his fon a ring, " the virtue of which was, that whofoever 
lhould bear it upon him, mould have the love of all men." The ring 
given by the princefs Rigmel to Horn poffeffed virtues of an equally 
remarkable defcription — "Whoever bore it upon him could notperifh; 
he need not fear to die either in fire or water, or in field of battle, or in 
the contention of the tournament." So, in the romance of "Floire and 
Blanceflor" (p. 42), the queen gives her fon a ring which would protecl: 
him againft all danger, and allure to him the eventual attainment of every 
object of his wifhes. Nor was the ring of fir Perceval of Galles (Thornton 
Romances, p. 71) at all lefs remarkable in its properties, of which the 
rhymer fays — 

Sic he a -vertue es in the ft an e, 
In alle this iverlde ivote I none 

Siche flone in a rynge ; 
A mane that had it in ivere (war) 
One his body for to here, 
There fcholde no dyntys (blows) hym dere (injure), 

Ne to dethe brynge. 

The confideration of the houfe and its parts and furniture, and of the 
outward forms of domeftic life, leads us naturally to that of the conftitu- 
tion of the family. It was the chief pride of the ariftocratic clafs to live 
very extravagantly, and to fupport a great houfehold, with an immenfe 
number of perfonal attendants of different clafles. In the firft place the 
old fyftem of foftering, which was kept up to a comparatively late period, 
added to the number of the lord's or knight's family. As might was 
literally right in the middle ages, each man of worth fought to ftrengthen 
himfelf by the alliances which were formed by finding powerful fofter- 
fathers for his fons, and the perfonal attachment and fidelity between the 
chief of the family and his follcr-child was often greater even than that 
between the father and his own fon. In addition to the toiler children, 
gentlemen fent their fons to take an honourable kind of fervice in the 
families of men of higher rank or greater wealth, where the manners and 
accomplifhments of gentlemen were to be learnt in greater perfection 
than at home ; and the younger fons of great families (ought limil.it- 

fen iee 



270 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 

fervice with a view to their advancement in the world. Thefe two 
claries were the young fquires, who ferved at table, and performed a great 
number of what we fhould now call menial offices to the lord and ladies 
of the houfehold, in all the amufements and recreations of which they 
took part, and at the fame time were inftrufted in gentlemanly manners 
and exercifes — it was a fort of apprenticefhip introductory to knighthood. 
In the fame manner the knightly families fent their daughters to ferve 
under the ladies of the greater or leffer feudal chieftains, and they formed 
that clafs who, in the French romances and fabliaux, are called the 
chambrieres, or chamber attendants, and in the Engliih texts, fimply the 
maidens, of the eftablifhment. The ladies of rank prided themfelves 
upon having a very great number of thefe chambrieres, or maidens, for 
they were not only a means of oftentation, but they were profitable, 
inafmuch as befides attending on the perfonal wants of their miftrelfes, 
they were conftantly employed in {pinning, weaving, and the various 
proceffes of producing cloth, in millinery and drefT-making, in embroidery, 
and in a great number of fimilar labours, which were not only required 
for furnifhing the large number of perfons who depended upon their 
lord for their liveries, &c, but which were fometimes fold to obtain 
money, which was always a fcarce thing in the country. The beauty of 
the pucelles, as they are often termed in the French text, or maidens, 
is alfo fpoken of as a fubjecl: of pride. In a metrical ftory printed 
by Meon (ii. 38), a great lady receiving a female ftranger into her 
houfehold, became fo much attached to her, " that fhe made more of 
her than of all her maidens, of whom," it is added, " there were hand- 
fome ones in her chambers" — v 

De li la dame fet grant Jejle, 
Plus que de totes Jes puceles, 
Dont en Jes chambres a de heles. 

And fo, in the romance of "Blonde of Oxford" (p. 50), when the 
countefs went with her maidens to vifit John, the remark is made that 
among them there were plenty of beauties : — 

Et la contejfe et Jes puceks, 
Dont ele a'voit ajfc's de bdes. 

The 



and Sentiments. 27: 



The ufual age for fending a boy to fofter appears to have been fev< n 
years. That was the age at which Fulke Fitz-Warine was fent to 
Joce de Dynan in Ludlow Caftle. "The lady," the narrative tells us, 
" became with child ; when fhe was delivered, at the time ordained by 
God, they called the child Fulke. And when the child was feveri years 
old, they fent it to Joce de Dynan to teach and nourilh ; for Joce was a 
knight of good accompli fhment. Joce received him with great honour 
and great affection, and educated him in his chambers with his own 
children." Fulke the younger, in the next generation, was taken as his 
fofter-child by the king (Henry II.), and was nourished and educated 
with the young princes, of whom John, in the fequel, proved a bad fofter- 
brother. The great barons fought to form alliances of this kind with the 
king, as well as with his great minifters and other men of power. In 
the romance of" Garin le Loherain" (vol. i. p. 62), king Pepin gives the 
two orphan fons of Hervis of Metz, Garin and Begon, as fofter-children 
to the count Hardres, and they thus become feverally the fofter-brothers, 
or, as they are termed in the old French, compains (companions), of his 
two fons, Begon being the fofter-brother of Guillaume of Montclin, and 
Garin of Fromont. Although they belong to rival families, and are each 
other's enemies through the turbulent fcenes which form the fubjecl of 
the ftory, the fentiment of the relationship by foftering often fhows itfelf. 
This yearning after fomething beyond mere ordinary friendship feems to 
have been often felt in the middle ages, and led to various charatterillie 
practices, among which one of the moft remarkable was that of fworn 
brotherhood. Two men — they are generally knights — who felt a fuffi- 
ciently ftrong fentiment towards each other, engaged, under the moft 
folemn oaths, in a bond of fraternity for life, implying a conftant and 
faithful friendihip to each other. This practice enters largely into the 
plot of feveral of the mediaeval romances, as in that of "Amis and 
Amiloun," and in the curious Englifh metrical romance of " King 
Athelfton," printed in the " Reliquiae Antiquae." The defire for this true 
friendihip was not unnaturally increafed by the general prevalence of 
treacherous falfehood and hateful feuds. There is a beautiful paffage in 
the romance of "Garin," jtift quoted, which illuftrates this fentiment, 

while 



272 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



while it furnifhes an interefting picture of domeftic life. " One day," we 
are told, "Begues was in his came of Belin, and betide him fat the 
beautiful Beatris. The duke kiffed her both on the mouth and on the 
cheeks, and very fweetly the duchefs fmiled. In the middle of the hall 
fhe faw her two fons, the elder! of whom was Garin, and the youngeft 
was named Hernaudin ; their ages were reflectively twelve years, and ten. 
Along with them were fix damoifels (gentlemen's fons) of worth, and 
they were running and leaping together, and playing, and laughing, and 
making game. The duke looked at them, and began to ugh 5 which 
was obferved by the lady, who queftioned him — 'Ah! rich duke! why 
have you forrowful thoughts ? You have gold and filver in your coffers, 
falcons in plenty on your perches, and rich cloths, buildings, and mules, 
and palfreys, and baggage-horfes ; and you have crufhed all your enemies. 
You have no neighbour within fix days' journey powerful enough to 
refufe to come to your fervice if you fend for him.' ' Lady,' faid the 
duke, ' what ycu fay is true ; but in one thing you have made a great 
oversight. Wealth confifts neither in rich cloths, nor in money, nor in 
buildings, nor in horfes ; but it is made of kinfmen and friends : the heart 
of one man is worth all the gold in a country.' " — 



Dift It dus, "Dame, merit es anjez dit ; 
Mais a"une choje i avez moult mejpris. 
N^eft pas richoife ne de i>air ne de gris, 
Ne de deniers, de murs } ne de roncins, 
Mais eft richoife de parens et d^amins ; 
Li cuers d^un homme vaut tout Por d^un pa 



Loherain, ii. 218. 



The incident of the younger, or even at times the elder, fons of feudal 
lords or landholders going to feek fervice is the groundwork of the 
romance of " Blonde of Oxford," and of the ftory of " Courtois d' Arras," 
printed by Meon in his collection of fabliaux and flories. The latter tale 
is a mediaeval verfion of the fcriptural ftory of the Prodigal Son. Youths 
of good family eanly found fervice in this manner, and the fervice itfelf 
was not confidered diihonourable, becaufe lords and gentlemen admitted 
nobody to immediate attendance on their perfons but fons of gentlemen — 
perfons of as good blood as themfelves. To be a good fervant was a 

gentlemanly 



and Sentiments. 273 



gentlemanly accomplifhment, and the payment thefe gentlemanly fervants 
received confifted ordinarily in their clothing and gifts of various kinds, 
rarely in money. I have already hinted that the intercourfe between 
the male and female portions of the houfehold was on a footing of 
familiarity and freedom, and at the fame time on a tone of gallantry 
which could hardly produce a high degree of morality, but the details on 
this lubjecl, though very abundant, are in great part of a defcription 
which cannot here be entered upon. This intercourfe extended to what 
we ihould now call the privacy of the bed-chamber. It was ufual, 
indeed, for the ladies to receive vifits from the gentlemen, tSte-a-tete, 
in their chamber. In the fabliau of " Guillaume au Faucon," printed in 
Barbazan, the young "damoifel," as the noble youth was ufually termed, 
having fallen in love with the beautiful wife of the lord in whole fervice 
he was, took an opportunity of vifiting her in her chamber, when he 
knew that all her maidens were employed in another part of the building. 
Without knocking, he opened the door gently, and found the huh' fitting 
alone on her bed. The lady faulted him with "a fweet (mile/ 1 and told 
him to come in and (it on the bed by her lide, and there "he laughed, 
and talked, and plaid with her, and the lady did the fame " — 

Rit et parole et joe a //, 
Et la dame tot autreji. 

In the midft of thefe familiarities, Guillaume made his declaration of 
love, and was rejected, but his purfuit was ultimately (uccefsful. In 
another fabliau of the thirteenth century, that of" Gamier d'Aupais/' it 
is the daughter of his lord and lady with whom the voting "damoifel" 
falls in love, and he takes the opportunity one morning, while the two 
latter are at church, to pay a vilit to the young lady in her chamber. 
Although in bed on account of illncts — and it has been already bated 
how people went to bed without any clothing — the lady is not furprifed 
by Gautier's \ilit, but invites him to lit on her bed, and tell her foraething 
to amufe her, and he finds the opportunity of making his lose with more 
fuccefs than the hero of the other tale. In the fame manner, the ladies 
are continually defcribed as vifiting the gentlemen in their chambers, 

\ \ both 



274 Hiftory of "Domejiic Manners 

both by day and by night. In " Blonde of Oxford," a fafhionable 
romance compofed for the entertainment of the beft fociety, Blonde thus 
leaves her bed, throwing only a mantle over her perfon, to pafs whole 
nights with Jean of Dammartin, and their interviews are defcribed in 
language which would not be allowed in any refpecfable book at the 
prefent day. The chevalier de la Tour-Landry, in his moral inftruftions 
to his daughters, tells them a ftory to illuftrate the ill remits of a quarrel- 
fome temper. There was a young lady, he fays, the daughter of " a 
very gentle knight," who quarrelled at the game of tables with a gentle- 
man who had no better temper than herfelf, and who, provoked by the 
irritating language fhe ufed towards him, told her that ihe was known 
to be in the habit of going by night into the men's chambers, and 
kiffing and embracing them in their beds without candle ; and this is 
told, not in reproof of conduct which was unufually bad, but to {how 
that people who fpeak ill of others run the riik of having their own 
failings expofed. Examples of this intercourfe of perfons of different 
fexes in their chambers, and of the remits which frequently followed, 
from the mediaeval romances and ftories, might be multiplied to almoft 
any extent. 

In thefe ftories, the ladies in general fliow no great degree of delicacy, 
but, on the contrary, they are commonly very forward. It is ufual with 
them to fall in love with the other fex, and, fo far from attempting to 
conceal their paffion, they often become fuitors, and make their advances 
with more warmth and lefs delicacy than is fhown by the gentlemen in a 
fimilar pofition. Not only are their manners diffolute, but their language 
and converfation are loofe beyond anything that thofe who have not read 
thefe interefting records of mediaeval life can eafily conceive, which was a 
common failing with both fexes. The author of the " Menagier de Paris " 
(ii. 60), in recommending to his daughters fome degree of modefty on 
this point, makes ufe of words which his modern editor, although printing 
a text in obfolete language, thought it advifable to fupprefs. It might be 
argued that the ufe of fuch language is evidence rather of the coarfenefs 
than of the immorality of the age, but, unfortunately, the latter inter- 
pretation is fupported by the whole tenor of contemporary literature and 

anecdote, 



and Sentiments. 2-75 



anecdote, which leave no doubt that mediaeval Ibciety was profoundly 
immoral and licentious. 

On the other hand, the gallantry and refinement of feeling which the 
gentleman is made to {how towards the other fex, is but a conventional 
politenefs; for the ladies are toe often treated with great brutality. Men 
beating their wives, and even women with whom they quarrel who are 
not their wives, is a common incident in the tales and romances. The 
chevalier de la Tour-Landry tells his daughters the ftory of a woman who 
was in the habit of contradicting her huiband in public, and replying to 
him ungracioufly, for which, after the huiband had expostulated in vain, 
he one day raifed his fifl and knocked her down, and kicked her in the 
face while fhe was down, and broke her note. "And lb," lays the 
knightly inftructor, " lhe was disfigured for life, and thus, through her 
ill behaviour and bad temper, lhe had her nofe fpoiled, which was a great 
misfortune to her. It would have been better for her to be filent and 
fubmilhve, for it is only right that words of authority fhould belong to 
her lord, and the wife's honour requires that fhe fhould liften in peace 
and obedience." The good "chevalier" makes no remark on the 
hufband's brutality, as though it were by no means an unufual occurrence. 

A trouvere of the thirteenth century, named Robert de Blois, com- 
piled a code of inftruclions in good manners for young ladies in French 
verfe, under the title of the " Chaflifement des Dames," which is printed 
by Barbazan, and forms a curious illuflration of feudal domeflic manners. 
It was unbecoming in a lady, according to Robert de Blois, to talk too 
much ; fhe ought efpecially to refrain from boafting of the attentions paid 
to her by the other fex ; and fhe was recommended not to fhow too much 
freedom in her games and amufements, left the men lhould be encou- 
raged to libertinifm. In going to church, lhe was not to "trot or run," 
but to walk ferioufly, not going in advance of her company, and look- 
ing ftraight before her, and not to this fide or the other, but to falute 
" debonairely" all perfons lhe met. She is recommended not to Lei men 
put their hands into her breafts, or kit's her on the mouth, as it might had 
to greater familiarities. She was not to look at a man too much, unless 
he were her acknowledged lover; and when me had a lover, lhe was not 

to 



276 Hi/lory of Domejlic Manners 

to boaft or talk too much of him. She was not to expofe her body 
uncovered out of vanity, as her breaft, or her legs, or her fides, nor to 
undrefs in the prefence of men. She was not to be too ready in accepting 
prefents from the other fex. The ladies are particularly warned againfl: 
fcolding and difputing, againfl: fwearing, againfl; eating and drinking too 
freely at table, and againfl getting drunk, the latter being a practice from 
which much miichief might arife. A lady was not to cover her face 
when fhe went in public, as a handfome face was made to be feen, and it 
was not good manners to remain with the face covered before a gentleman 
of rank. An exception, however, is made in the cafe of ugly or deformed 
faces, which might be covered. There was another exception to the 
counfel juft mentioned. " A lady who is pale-faced, or who has not a 
good fmell, ought to breakfaft early in the morning; for good wine gives 
a very good colour; and fhe who eats and drinks well mud heighten 
her colour." One who has bad breath is recommended to eat anifeed, 
fennel, and cumin to her breakfaft, and to avoid breathing in people's 
faces. A lady is to be very attentive to her behaviour in church, rules for 
which are given. If fhe could fing, fhe was to do fo when afked, and 
not require too much prefling. Ladies are further recommended to keep 
their hands clean, to cut their nails often, and not to fufier them to grow 
beyond the finger, or to harbour dirt. In palling other people's houfes, 
ladies were not to look into them ; " for a perfon often does things 
privately in his houfe, which he would not with to be feen, if any one 
fhould come before his door." For this realbn, too, when a lady went 
into another perfon's houfe, fhe is recommended to cough at the entrance, 
or to fpeak out loud, fo that the inmates might not be taken by furprife. 
The directions for a lady's behaviour at table are very particular. " In 
eating, you muft avoid much laughing or talking. If you eat with 
another (i. e., in the fame plate, or of the fame mefs), turn the niceft bits 
to him, and do not go picking out the fineft and largeft for yourfelf, 
which is not courteous. Moreover, no one fhould eat greedily a choice 
bit which is too large or too hot, for fear of choking or burning herfelf. 
.... Each time you drink, wipe your mouth well, that no greafe may 
go into the wine, which is very unpleafant to the perfon who drinks after 

you. 



mid Sentiments. 277 



you. But when you wipe your mouth for drinking, do not wipe your 
eyes or note with the table-cloth, and avoid {pilling from your mouth, 
or greafing your hands too much." The lady is further, and particularly, 
recommended not to utter falfehoods. The remainder of the poem 
conlift of directions in making love and receiving the addreffes of fuitors. 
The "Book" of the chevalier de la Tour-Landry contains inftructions for 
young ladies, in fubftance very much like thefe, but illuftrated by ftories 
and examples. 

The chamber-maidens alfo went abroad, like the young fons of 
gentlemen ; but female fervants who came as ftrangers appear not in 
general to have been well regarded, and they probably were, or were 
conlidered as, a lower clafs. The circumftance of their having left the 
country where they were known, was looked upon as prima facie evidence 
that their conduct had brought them into difcredit there. The author of 
the " Menagier de Paris" advifes his daughter never to take any Inch 
chamlrieres, without having firfl: fent to make ftricl inquiries about them 
in the parts from whence they came. This fame early writer on domeftic 
economy divides the fervants, who, in a large houfehold, were very 
numerous, into three claffes : thofe who were employed on a hidden, and 
only for a certain work, with regard to whom the principal caution given 
is to bargain with them for the price of their labour before they begin ; 
thofe who were employed for a certain time in a particular defcription of 
work, as tailors, fhoemakers, butchers, and others, who always came to 
work in the houfe on materials belonging to the mailer of the houfe, 
or harveft-men, ike, in the country; and domeftic fervants who were 
hired by the year. Thefe latter were expected to pay an abfolute paffive 
obedience to the lord and lady of the houfehold, and to thole fel in 
authority by them. The lady of the houfe had the efpecial charge of the 
female fervants, and the "Menagier" contains rather minute directions 
as to her houfekeeping duties. She was to require of the maid-fen ants, 
" that early in the morning the entrance to your hoftel, that is, the hall, 
and the other places by which people enter ami flop in the hoftel to 
converfe, be fwept and made clean, and thai the footftools and covers oJ 
the benches and forms be dulled and lliaken, and after this that the 

other 



273 



Hiflory of Domeflic Manners 



other chambers be in like manner cleaned and arranged for the day." 
They were next to attend to and feed all the "chamber animals," fuch 
as pet dogs, cage birds, &c. The next thing to be done was to portion 
out to each fervant her or his work for the day. At midday the fervants 
were to have their firft meal, when they were to be fed plentifully, but 
" only of one meat, and not of feveral or of any delicacies ; and give 
them one only kind of drink, nouriihing but not heady, whether wine or 
other ; and admonilh them to eat heartily, and to drink well and plen- 
tifully, for it is right that they ihould eat all at once, without fitting too 
long, and at one breath, without repofing on their meal, or halting, or 
leaning with their elbows on the table ; and as foon as they begin to talk, 
or to reft on their elbows, make them rife, and remove the table." After 
their "fecond labour," and on feaft-days, the fervants were to have 
another, apparently a lighter, repaft, and laftly, in the evening (au vefpre), 
they were to have another abundant meal, like their dinner, and then, 
" if the feafon required it," they were to be " warmed and made com- 
fortable." The lady of the houfe was then, by herfelf or a deputy on 
whom flie could depend, to fee that the houfe was clofed, and to take 
charge of the keys, that nobody could go out or come in ; and then to 
have all the fires carefully "covered," and fend all the fervants to bed, 
taking care that they put out their candles properly, to prevent the rifk 
of fire. In the Englifh poem of the " Seven Sages," printed by Weber, 
the emperor is defcribed as going to his chamber, after the time of 
locking windows and gates — 

Whan men leke ivindoive and gate, 

Themparour com to chambre late. — Weber, iii. 60. 

And it appears from a tale in the fame collection, that the doors and 
windows were unlocked at daybreak — 

Tho (when) the day daiven gan, 

Aioai ftal the yonge man ,■ 

Men unlek dore and ivindoive. — lb., p. S7. 

There was another duty performed by the ladies in the mediaeval 
houfehold, which was a very important one in an age of turbulence, and 
muft not be overlooked — they were both nurfes and doctors. Medical 

men 



and Sentiments. 279 



men were not then at hand to be coniulted, and the lick or wounded 
man was handed over to the care of the miftrefs of the houfe and her 
maidens. The reader of Chaucer will remember the medicinal know- 
ledge difplayed by dame Pertelot in the " Nonne-Preftes Tale." Medi- 
cinal herbs were grown in every garden, and were dried or made into 
decoctions, and kept for ufe. In the early romances we often meet with 
ladies who poffetfed plants and other objects which poffeffed the power 
of miraculous cures, and which they had obtained in forae myfterious 
manner. Thus, in the Carlovingian romance of " Gaufrey," when 
Robaftre was fo dangeroufly wounded that there remained no hope of his 
life, the good wife of the traitor Grifon undertook to cure him. "And 
fhe went to a coffer and opened it, and took out of it a herb which has 
fo great virtue that whoever takes it will be relieved from all harm. She 
pounded and mixed it in a mortar, and then came to Robaftre and gave 
it him. It had no fooner paiTed his throat than he was as found as an 
apple" ("Gaufrey," p. 119). So in "Fierabras" (p. 67), the Saracen 
princefs Floripas had in her chamber the powerful "mandeglore" (man- 
drake), which fhe applied to the wounds of Oliver, and they were 
inftantly healed. In the " Roman de la Violette" (p. 104), when 
Gerart, defperately wounded, is carried into the caftle, the maiden 
who was lady of it took him into a chamber, and there took off his 
armour, undreffed him, and put him to bed. They examined all his 
wounds, and applied to them ointments of great efficacy, and under this 
treatment he foon recovered. In the Englifh romance of "Amis and 
Amiloun," when fir Amiloun is difcovered ftruck with leprofy, the wife 
of his friend Amis takes him into her chamber, ftrips him of all his 
clothing, bathes him herfelf, and then puts him to bed — 

Into hir chaumbcr fhe can him lede, 

And kcjl of al his pever ivede (poor clollics), 

And bathed his bodi al bare ; 
And to a bedde fiuithe (quickly) him brought, 
With clothes riche and ivclc yior ought ,• 
Ful blithe of him thai ivarc.- — Weber, ii. 159. 

To the knowledge of medicines was too often added another knowledge, 
that of poifons — a fcience which was carried to a greal degree of per- 

feftion 



280 Hiftory of Domejiic Maimers 

feclion in the middle ages, and of which there were regular profeffors. 
The practice of poifoning was, indeed, carried on to a frightful extent, 
and it appears, from a variety of evidence, that women were commonly 
agents in it. 

A great part of the foregoing remarks apply exclufively to the arifto- 
cratic portion of fociety, which included all thofe who had the right to 
become knights. Through the whole extent of this portion of fociety 
one blood was believed to run, which was diftinguiihed from that of all 
other clafles by the title of "gentle blood." The pride of gentle blood, 
which was one of the diftinguiihing characteriftics of feudalifm, was very 
great in the middle ages. It was believed that the mark of this blood 
could never difappear ; and many of the mediaeval ftories turn upon the 
circumftance of a child of gentle blood having been ftolen or abandoned 
in its earlier infancy, and bred up, without any knowledge of its origin, 
as a peafant among peafants, or as a burgher among burghers, but dif- 
playing, as it grew towards manhood, by its conduct, the unmiftakable 
proofs of its gentle origin, in fpite of education and example. The 
burgher clafs — the merchant or trade (man, or the manufacturer — appear 
always as money-getting and money-faving people, and individuals often 
became very rich. This circumftance became a temptation, on the one 
hand, to the ariftocrat, whofe tendency was ufually, through his prodigality, 
to become poor, and, on the other, to the rich man of no blood, who 
fought to buy ariftocratic alliances by his wealth, and intermarriages 
between the two clafles were not very unfrequent. In moft cafes, at leaf! 
in the romances and ftories, it was an ariftocratic young lady who became 
united with a wealthy merchant, and it was ufually a ftroke of felfiih 
policy on the part of the lady's father. In the fabliau of the " Vilain 
Mire" (Barbazan, ii. 1) — the origin of Moliere's " Medecin malgre lui," 
— and in one or two other old ftories, the ariftocratic young lady is married 
to an agriculturift. Marriages of this defcription are reprefented as being 
never happy ; the hulband has no fympathy for his wife's gentility, and, 
according to the code of "chivalry," the lady was perfectly juftified 
in being unfaithful to her hulband as often as flie liked, efpecially if flie 
finned with men who were fuperior to him in blood. 

It 



and Sentiments. 281 



It was common for the burgher clafs to ape gentility, even among 
people of a lower order ; for the great merchant was often fuperior in 
education and in intelligence, as he was in wealth, to the great majority 
of the ariftocratic clafs. In Chaucer, even the wife of the miller afpired 
to the ariftocratic title of madame — 

Titer durfle no ivight clepe (call) hir but madame. — Cant. Tales 1. 3954. 

And in fpeaking of the wives of various burghers who joined in the 
pilgrimage, the poet remarks — 

It is right fair for to be clept (called) madame. — Ibid., 1. 3<8. 

The burghers alio cheriihed a number of fervants and followers in their 
houfehold, or me/hie. In the fabliau of "La Borgoife d'Orliens," the 
mefnie of the burgher, who is not reprefented as a perfon of wealth or 
distinction, confifts of two nephews, a lad who carried water, three 
chamber-maidens, a niece, two pautoniers, and a ribald, and thefe were 
all harboured in the hall. The pautonier was only another name for the 
ribald, or perhaps it was a fub-clafs or divifton of the infamous clafs who 
lived parafitically upon the fociety of the middle ages. Even the ordinary 
agriculturift had his mefnie. 

What I have faid of the great diflblutenefs and immorality of the 
ariftocratic clafs applies more efpecially to the houfeholds of the greater 
barons, though the fame fpirit muft have fpread itfelf far through the 
whole clafs. The ariftocratic clafs was itfelf divided into two chillis, or 
rather two ranks, — the great barons, and the knights and lefler landholders, 
and the divifion between thefe two clalfes became wider, and the latter 
more absolutely independent, as the power of feudalifm declined. Thefe 
latter were the origin of that clafs which in more modern times has been 
known by the title of the old country gentleman. As far as we can 
judge from what we know of them, I am led to think that this clafs 
was the moft truly dignified, and in general the moil moral, portion of 
mediaeval fociety. There is abundant evidence thai the tone of morality 
in the burgher and agricultural clalfes was not high; and the whole 
tenor of mediaeval popular ami hiftorical literature can leave no doubt on 

o o our 



282 



Hiftory of Domefiic Manners 



our minds that in the middle ages the clergy were the great corrupters 
of domeftic virtue among both thefe claries. The character of the 
women, as defcribed in the old fatirifts and ftory-tellers, as well as in 
records of a ftill more ftridtly truthful character, was very low, and, in 
the towns efpecially, they are defcribed as fpending much of their time 
in the taverns, drinking and goffiping. Of courfe there were everywhere 
— and, it is to be trufted, not a few— bright exceptions to this general 
character. 



I 



and Senti?ne?2ts. 283 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OCCUPATIONS OUT OF DOORS. THE PLEASURE-GARDEN. THE LOVE 

OF FLOWERS, AND THE FASHION OF MAKING GARLANDS. FOR- 
MALITIES OF THE PROMENADE. GARDENING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

HUMBOLDT, iii his " Coimos," has dwelt on the tafte for the 
beauties of nature which has prevailed among various peoples, and 
at different periods of the world's hiftory, but he appears to me to have 
by no means appreciated or done juftice to the force of this fentiment 
among our forefathers in the middle ages, and, perhaps I may fay, 
efpecially in England. In our ancient popular poetry, the mention of 
the feafon of the year at which an event happens generally draws from 
the poet fome allufion to the charms of nature peculiar to it, to the 
fweetnefs of the flowers, the richnefs of the fruit, or the harmony of the 
fong of birds. In fome of the early romances, each new divifion of 
the poem is introduced by an allufion of this kind. Thus, at the 
opening of what the editor calls the firft chapter of the fecond part of 
the romance of " Richard Cceur de Lion," the poet tells us how it— 

Merye is in the tyme of May , 

Whenne foulis fynge in her lay ; 

Flourcs on appyl-trees and per ye (pear-tree) ,• 

Smale foules fynge mcrye. 

Ladycs Jirotve here boures (chambers) 

With rede rofcs and lylye fozures ; 

G ret joy e is in frith (;, r ro-vo) and lake. — Webor, ii. 1 19. 

Such interruptions of the narrative are frequent in the long romance of 
"Alexander" (Alexander the Great), and are always expreffive. Thus, 
on one occafion the poet tells us, abruptly enough, how — 

Whan corn ripcth in every Jlcode (place), 

Mury (pleasant) it is in fid and hyde (meadow). — [bid., i. 24. 

Ami 



284 



Hiflory of Dome ft ic Manners 



And again, introduced equally abruptly, we are informed — ■ 

In tyme of hervejl mery it is ynough ; 

Peres and apples hongeth on bough. 

The hayivard bloiveth mery his home ; 

In every che (every) felde ripe is come; 

The grapes hongen on the <vyne ; 

Siuete is treive love andfyne. — Weber, p. 23S. 

When, indeed, we confider the confined and dark character of moil 
of the apartments of the feudal dwelling, we cannot be furprifed if our 
mediaeval forefathers loved the recreations which brought them into the 
open air. Caftles and country manfions had always their gardens and 
pleafure-grounds, which were much frequented by all the different 
branches of the houfehold. The readers of Chaucer will remember the 
defcription of the "noble" knight January — - 

Amonges other of his honeji t hinges, 
He had a gardyn ivalled al with Jloon, 
So fair a gardyn tvot I no ivher noon. 

It is implied, at leaft, that this garden was extenfive, and — 

This noble knight, this January the olde, 

Such deynte hath in it to walk and playe, 

That he ivold no ivight fuffre bere the keye, 

Save he him/elf — Chaucer, The Marchaumles Tale. 

So, in the curious popular collection of mediaeval fiories, entitled the 
" Seven Sages," we are told of a rich burgefs who 

Hadde, bihinden his pa/eys, 

A fair gar din of nobleys, 

Ful of appel-tres, and als (also) of pirie (pear-trees) ,• 

Foules fonge therinne murie. 

Amideivard that gardyn fre, 

So ivax (grew) a pinnote-tre, 

That hadde fair boives and f rut ; 

Ther under ivas al his dedut (pleasure). 

He made ther-under a grene bench, 

And drank ther under many a fjchench (cupful). — Weber, iii. 23, 

And again, in the fame collection of ftories, a prudent mother, counfelling 
her daughter, tells her — 



Daughter, thi loverd (lord) hath a gardin, 
A ivel fair ympe (young tree) is tharin ; 



A fair 



and Sentiments. 285 



A fair harbeth (arbour) hit overfpredeth, 

Alle his folas therinne he ledcth. — Weber, iii. G9. 

In Chaucer's " Frankeleynes Tale," when the lady Dorigen was in want 
of amufement to make her forget the abfence of her hufband, her friends, 
finding that the fea-lhore was not fufficiently gay, — 

Schope hem for to pleien fomivhere elles, 

They leden hire by rivers and by ivelles, 

And eke in other places delitables ,• 

They dauncen, and they pley at ches and tables. 

So on a day, right in the morive tide, 

Unto a gardeyn that ivas ther befide, 

In which that they had made her ordinance 

Of vitaile, and of other purveance, 

They gon and plaic hem al the longe day : 

And this ivas on thefixte morive of May, 

Which May had painted ivith his fofte Jchoures 

This gardeyn ful of hues and of flour es : 

And craft of marines hondfo curioufly 

Arrayed had this gardeyn of Juche pris 

As if it ivere the verray paradis. 

And after dinner gan thay to daunce 
Andfnge alfo ; fauf Dorigen alone. 

An important incident in the flory here occurs, after which — 

Tho (then) come hir other frendes many on, 
And in the alleyes romed up and doivn, 
And nothing ivifl of this conclufioun, 
But fodeynly began to revel nciue, 
Til that the bright e fonne had loft his have. 

It would be eafy to multiply fuch defcriptions as the foregoing, but 
we will only refer to the well-known one at the commencement of the 
"Romance of the Rose," where the carolling is defcribed with more 
minutenefs than ufual. There were employed minflrcls, and "jogelours," 
and apparently even tumblers, which are thus defcribed in Chaucer's 
Englilh verfion : — 

Tho (then) myghtift thou karolesfene, 
And folk daunce and mery bene, 
And made many a fa'tre tournyng 

Upon the grene gras fpringyng. 

There 



286 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



There myghtiji thou Je thefejloivtours, 

Mynftrales and eke jogelours, 

That tvel to fynge dide her peyne, 

Somrne fonge fonges of Loreyne ; 

For in Loreyn her notes bee 

Fulle fwetter than in this contre. 

There ivas many a tymbejler, 

And faillouris (jumpers, or tumblers), that I dar ivel /were 

Couthe (knew) her craft ful parftly, 

The tymbris up ful foully 

They cafte and bent e fulle ofte 

Upon a fynger faire and fofte } 

That they ne failide never mo. 

Ful fetys damyfeles tivo, 

Ryght yonge, and fulle of femelyhede, 

In kirtles and noon other ivede, 

And faire treffed every trefje, 

Hadde Myrthe doon for his nobleffe 

Amydde the karole for to daunce. 

But herof lieth no remembraunce 

Hoiv that they daunced queyntly, 

That oon ivolde come alle pryvyly 

Agayn that other, atid ivhan they ivere 

Togidre almoji, they thre%ve yfere (in company) 

Her mouthis fo } that thorough her play 

It femed as they kijie alway. 

To dauncen ivelle koude they the gife, 

What fhulde I more to you devyfe ? 

Thefe lines fhow us that our forefathers in the middle ages had their 
dancing girls, juft as they had and frill have them in the Eaft ; it was one 
trait of the mixture of Oriental manners with thofe of Europe which had 
taken place fince the crufades. 

In thefe extracts, indeed, we have allulions to the pracf ices of dancing 
and tinging, of playing at chefs and tables, of drinking, and even of 
dining, in the gardens. Our engraving No. 194, taken from the romance 
of "Alexander," in the Bodleian Library, reprefents a garden fcene, in 
which two royal perfonages are playing at chefs. Dancing in the open 
air was a very common recreation, and is not unfrequently alluded to. 
In the Roman de Geile, known by the title of " La Mort de Garin," 
a large dinner party is given in a garden — ■ 



Les napes metent pardeairz un jardin. — Mort de Garin, p. 28. 



And, 



and Sentiments. 



2 8 7 



And, in the " Roman de Berte" (p. 4), Charles Martel is reprefented as 
dining fimilarly in the garden, at the midfummer fealbn, when the rofe 
was in blollbm — 

Entour le faint Jehan, que la rofe efl jieurie. 

There is an early Latin fiery of a man who had a crofT-orained wife. 
One day he invited lb me friends to dinner, and fet out his table in his 




No. 194. A Mediaeval Garden Scene. 

garden, by the fide of a river {fecit poni men/am in hortujiio prope aquam). 
The lady feated herfelf by the water-fide, at a little diftance from the 
table, and caft a very forbidding look upon her hufband's gueftsj upon 
which he laid to her, " Show a pleafanl countenance to our guefls, and 

com< 



288 



Hiftory of Domejlic Manner \j 



come nearer the table 3" but fhe only moved further off, and nearer the 
brink of the river, with her back turned to the water. He repeated his 
invitation in a more angry tone, in reply to which, to mow her ill-humour, 
fhe drew further back, with a quick movement of ill-temper, through 
which, forgetting the nearnefs of the river, fhe fell into it, and was 
drowned. The hufband, pretending great grief, fent for a boat, and 
proceeded up the ftream in fearch of her body. This excited fome 
furprife among his neighbours, who fuggefted to him that he fhould go 
down the ftream, and not up. "Ah !" faid he, "you did not know my 
wife — fhe did everything in contradiction, and I firmly believe that her 
body has floated againft the current, and not with it." 

Even among the ariflocratic clafs the garden was often the place for 
giving audience and receiving friends. In the romance of " Garin le 
Loherain," a meffenger fent to the count Fromont, one of the great 
barons, finds him fitting in a garden furrounded by his friends — 

Trouva Fromont feant en un jardin ; 

Environ lui avoit defes amins. — Roman de Garin, i. 2S2. 

A favourite occupation of the ladies in the middle ages was making 
garlands and chaplets of flowers. In the "Lai d'Ariftote" (Barbazan, iii. 
105, 107), king Alexander's beautiful miftrefs is defcribed as defcending 
early in the morning, walking in the garden alone, and making herfelf a 
chaplet of flowers. In another fabliau, published in Germany by Adelbert 
Keller, a Saracenic maiden defcends from her chamber into the garden, 
performs her toilette at the fountain there, and then makes herfelf a 
chaplet of flowers and leaves, which fhe puts on her head. So Emelie, 
in Chaucer's "Knights Tale," — 

Ichthed ivas fche frefjh for to de-vyfe. 

Hire yolive (yellow) heer ivas broivdid in a trejfe 

Byhynde hire bak, a yerde long, I gefj'e. 

And in the gardyn at the Jonne uprijie (sun-rise) 

Sche ivalketh up and doun ivkeer as hire life ; 

Sche gadereth Jloures, partye ivhyte and recde, 

To make a certeyn gerland for hire heede, 

And as an aur.gel hevenly fche fong. 

A little further on, Arcyte goes at daybreak into the fields to make him a 

chaplet, 



and Sentiments. 



chaplet, of the leaves of woodbine or hawthorn, for it mull be remem- 
bered that this takes place in the month of May, which was especially 
the feafon for wearing garlands. In " Blonde of Oxford," Jean ot 
Dammartin, feeking his miftrefs, finds her in a meadow making herfelf 
a chaplet of flowers — 

Adont de la chamhre f a-vance, 

De la le -vit en i. prael 

U ele faifoit un cap'iel. — Ulende of Oxford, p. 30. 

Our cut No. 195, taken from a well-known manufcript in the Britifh 
Mufeum, of the beginning of the fourteenth century (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii.), 
reprefents a party of ladies in the garden, gathering flowers, and making 




No. 195. Ladies making Garlands. 

garlands. The love of flowers, as I have dated in a former chapter, feems 
to have prevailed generally among our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and 
affectionate allufions to them occur, not unfrcqucntly, in the literary 
remains of that early period. Many of our old favourite garden-flowers 
are, I believe, derived from the Anglo-Saxon gardens. Proofs ot a fimilar 
attachment to flowers might be quoted in abundance from the writings 
of the periods fuhfequent to the entrance of the Normans. The wearing 
of garlands or chaplets of flowers was a common practice with both fexes. 
In the romantic hiftory of the Fitz-Warines, written in the thirteenth 

P P century, 



290 



Hiftory of Domeftic Manners 



century, the hero, in travelling, meets a young knight who, in token of 
his joyous humour, carries a chaplet of flowers on his head. In the later 
Englilh romance of the " Squyer of Lowe Degree," when the "fquyer" 
was preparing to do his office of carver in the hall — 

There he araled him in fear let red, 
A fid fet a chaplet upon his hed ; 
A belte about his fydes two, 
White hrod barres to and fro. 

Walter de Biblefworth talks of ladies dancing the carole, their heads 
crowned with garlands of the blue-bottle flower — 



IVLencr karole 
De r ou% chapeau de bla'verole. 



-Vocabularies, 



Garlands of flowers were alio the common rewards for fuccefs in the 
popular games. 

All thefe enjoyments naturally rendered the garden a favourite and 
important part of every man's domeftic eftablifhment ; during the warmer 
months of the year it was a chofen place of refort, efpecially after dinner. 
In the romance of " Garin le Loherain," Begues is reprefented as 
defcending from his palace, after dinner, to walk with his fair wife 
Beatrice in his garden — 

En fon palais fu Begues de Belin ; 
Apres mangier entra en un jar din, 
A'veuc lui fu la belle Biatris. — Roman de Garin, vol. ii. p. 97. 

In another part of the fame romance, Begues de Belin and his barons, on 
riling from the table, went to feek recreation in the fields — 

Quant mangie' ont et beu a loifr, 

Les napes ojient, et en pres funt failli. — Ibid., vol. i. p. 203. 

The manufcript in the Britifh Mufeum, from which we took our lafl 
illuflration, furnifhes the accompanying reprefentation of a group of ladies 
walking in the garden, and gathering flowers (No. 196). 

In the "Menagier de Paris," compiled about the year T393, its author, 
addrefling his young wife, treats briefly of the behaviour of a woman 

when 



K and Sentiments. 



29 



when the is walking out, and especially when palling along the flreets of 
a town, or going to church. "As you go," he fays, " look ftraight before 
you, with your eye-lids low and fixed, looking forward to the ground, at 
rive toifes (thirty feet) before you, and not looking at, or turning your 




No. 196. Ladies walking in the Garden, 

eyes, to man or woman who may be to your right or left, nor looking 
upwards, nor changing your look from one place to another, nor laughing, 
nor flopping to fpeak to anybody in the ftreet" (vol. i. p. 15). It mull 
be confeifed that this is, in fome points, rather hard counfel for a lady to 
follow ; but it is confiitent with the general fyftem of formalities of 
behaviour in the middle ages, upon which the ladies gladly took their 
revenge when removed from contlraint. When two or more perfbns 
walked together, it was the cuftora to hold each other by the hands, not 
to walk arm-in-arm, which appears to be a very modern practice. In the 
romance of " Ogier le Danois," the emperor and Ogier, when reconciled, 
are thus reprefented, walking in a friendly manner hand in hand. The 
ladies in our laft engraving are walking in this manner; and in our next 
(No. 197), — taken from a copy, given in M. du Sommerard's "Album," 
from a manuicript in the library of the arfenal at Paris, written and 
illuminated for a prince of the houfe of Burgundy, in the fifteenth 
century, — the lords and ladies of a noble or princely houfehold are repre- 
fented as walking out in the fame manner. It is well known thai the 

court 



292 



Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 



court of Burgundy, in the fifteenth century, offered the model of ftrict 
etiquette. This illuftration gives us alio a very good picture of a ftreet 
fcene of the period to which it belongs. The height of gentility, how- 
ever, at leaft, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, feems to have been 




No. 1 97. A Promenade Scene in the Fifteenth Century. 



to hold the lady by the finger only. It is in this manner that, in the 
romance of " Ogier le Danois,'' the hero holds the princefs Gloriande — 



Donques enmainne le ban Danois Ogier, 

E Gloriande, qui par le doit le tient.— Roman d'Ogicr, ]>. 110. 



So, 



and Sentiments. 



2 93 



So, in the romance of" La Violette," at the feltivitics given by the king, 
the guefts " diftributed themfelves in couples in the hall (i e. a gentleman 
with a lady), one taking the other by the finger, and lb they arranged 
themfelves two and two " — 

Quant il orent ajfe's deduit, 

Par la fale f acoinfent tuit ; 

Li uns prent I' 'autre par le dot, 

Si farangierent doi et doi. — Roman de la Violette, p. l<i. 

In the curious poem entitled "La Court de Paradis," the fainted 
ladies in heaven are reprefented as thus walking and holding each other 
by the finger, — 

L^une tint /' 'autre par !es dois. — Eaibazan, iii. 139. 

As a mark of great familiarity, two princes, Pepin's fori, Charles, and the 
duke Namles, are reprefented in the romance of " Ogier" as one, Charles, 
holding his hand on the duke's lhoulder, while the duke held him by his 
mantle, as they walked along ; they were 
going to church together : — 

Kal/es fa main !i tint defus Vefpaule ; 
Namles tint lui par le mantel de paile. 

Roman d"Ogii r, p. 143. 

It may be remarked that fitting was 
equally a matter of etiquette with walk- 
ing, though we fometimes meet with 
ladies and gentlemen feated in a manner 
which is anything but ceremonious. In 
the annexed cut (No. 198), taken from 
a manufcript of the fourteenth century, 
the reference to which I have unfor- 
tunately loft, a number of ladies, feated Na - T 9 S - A B, P>P Preaching. 
on the ground, and apparently in the open air, are Liftening to the admo- 
nitions of an epifcopal preacher. 

As I have introduced the fubjecl of the love of our forefathers for 
trees and flowers, fome account of gardening in the middle ages will not 

be 




294 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



be out of place, efpecially as what has hitherto been written on the hiftory 
of gardening in England during this early period, has been very imperfecf 
and incorrect We have no direct information relating to the gardens of 
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers — in fa6t, our knowledge is limited to a few 
words gathered from the old vocabularies. The ordinary names for a 
garden, wyrt-tun and wyrt-geard, a plant-inclofure and a plant-yard, are 
entirely indefinite, for the word wyrt was applied to all plants whatever, 
and perhaps they indicate what we mould call the kitchen-garden. The 
latter word, which was fometimes fpelt ort-geard, orc-geard, and orcyrd, 
was the origin of our modern orchard, which is now limited to an inclofure 
of fruit-trees. Flowers were probably cultivated in the inclofed fpace 
round the houfes. It would appear that the Saxons, before they became 
acquainted with the Romans, cultivated very few plants, if we may judge 
from the circumftance that throughout the Anglo-Saxon period the names 
by which thefe were known were nearly all derived from the Latin. 
The leek appears to have been the principal table vegetable among the 
Anglo-Saxons, as it was among the Welih ; its name, leac, or leah, is 
pure Anglo-Saxon, and its importance was confidered fo much above 
that of any other vegetable, that leac-tun, the leek-garden, became the 
common name for the kitchen-garden, and leac-weard, a leek-keeper, 
was ufed to defignate the gardener. The other alliaceous plants were 
confidered as fo many varieties of the leek, and were known by fuch 
names as enne-leac, or ynne-leac, fuppofed to be the onion, and gar-leac, 
or garlic. Bean is alio an Anglo-Saxon word ; but, Angularly enough, 
the Anglo-Saxons feem not to have been originally acquainted with 
peas, for the only name they had for them was the Latin pifa, and 
pyfe. Even for the cabbage tribe, the only Anglo-Saxon name we 
know is fimply the Latin brajjica ; and the colewort, which was 
named cawl, and cawl-wyrt, was derived from the Latin caulis. So 
the turnip was called ncepe, from the Latin napus ; and rcedic, or radifh, 
is perhaps from raphanus* Garden creifes, parfley, mint, fage, rue, 



* To show the extreme ignorance which has prevailed on the history of English 
udening in the middle ages, it need only be mentioned that Loudon, " Encyclo- 

and 



and Sentiments. 295 



and other herbs,* were in ufe, but moitly, except the crefles, with 
Latin names. 

We have long lifts of flowering plants in the Anglo-Saxon vocabu- 
laries, but as they are often difficult to identity, and, being chiefly 
enumerated for their medicinal qualities, are moitly wild plants, they 
throw little light on the character of the flower-garden. For the garden 
rofe and the lily they ufed the Roman names rofe and lilie; the latter 
appears to have been an efpecially favourite flower among the Anglo- 
Saxons. Among other plants, evidently belonging to the garden, are 
futhernwood, futherne-wude, the turnfole or funflower, called JigeUhwerfe 
(the gem-turned) or folfcece (which is merely the Latin folfequium), the 
violet (clcefre), the marigold, called read-clcefre, the gilliflower, hwit- 
c/cej're, the periwinkle, pervincce, the honeyfuckle, hunig-fucle, the piony, 
for which the Anglo-Saxons had only the Latin word pionia, the daily, 
dceges-eage, and the laur-leam, which was perhaps the bay-tree rather 
than the laurel. 

The chief fruit of the Anglo-Saxons was undoubtedly the apple, the 
name of which, ceppd, belongs to their language. The tree was called 
an apulder, and the only varieties mentioned are the Jurmel/i apulder, or 
louring apple-tree, and the fwite apulder, or fweeting apple-tree. The 
Anglo-Saxons had orchards containing only apple-trees, to which they 
gave the name of an apulder-tun, or apple-tree garden; of tin- frail 
of which they made what they called, and we ftill call, cider, and 
which they alfo called ccppel-ivin, or apple-wine. They appear to have 
received the pear from the Romans, as its name pera, a pear, and piriga, 
a pear-tree, was evidently taken from pints. They had alfo derived from 
the Roman gardens, no doubt, the cherry-tree (cyrf-treow, or ciris-beam, 



paedia of Gardening" (edition of 1S50), was not aware that the leek had been 
cultivated in England before the time of Tusser, the latter half of" the sixteenth 
century (p. 854); and states that garlic "has been cultivated in this country since 
1548" (p. 855); and that the radish is "an annual, a native of China, and was 
mentioned by Gerard in 1584" (p. 846). 

* Loudon (p. 887) was not aware that the cultivation of sage dated Farther 
back than the time of Gerard, who wrote in 1597, and he could trace back to no 
older date the cultivation of rue. 

the 



296 Hi [lory of Domeftic Manners 

from the Latin cerafm), the peach (pei'foc-treow, from perjicarius) , the 
mulberry (mor-heam, from morus), the cheftnut {cyften, cyjl, or cyftcl-beam, 
from cqftaneus)* perhaps the almond {magdala-treoiv, from amigdalus), 
the fig (Jic-beam, from Jicus), and the pine (pin-treow, from pinus). The 
fmall kernels of the pine were ufed very extenfively in the middle ages, 
in the fame way as olives. We muft add to thefe the plum (plum-lreow), 
the name of which is Anglo-Saxon ; the medlar, which was known in 
Anglo-Saxon by a very unexplainable name, but one which was preferred 
to a comparatively recent period ; the quince, which was called a cod-ceple, 
or bag-apple ; the nut (hnutu), and the hazel-nut (hcefel-hnutu) . They 
called the olive an oil-tree (ale-beam), which would feem to prove that 
they considered its principal utility to be for making oil. The vine was 
well-known to the Anglo-Saxons 5 they called it the ivin-treow, or wine- 
tree, its fruit, winberige, or wine berries, and a bunch of grapes, geclyflre, 
a clufter. We find no Anglo-Saxon words for goofeberries or currants 5 
but our forefathers were well acquainted with the ftrawberry (Jirea-berige) 
and the rafpberry, which they called hynd-berige. Perhaps thefe laft-men- 
tioned fruits, which are known to be natives of Britain, were known 
only in their wild ftate.f 

The earliefi: account of an Engliih garden is given by Alexander 
Neckham, who flourilhed in the latter half of the twelfth century, in the 
fixty-fixth chapter of the fecond book of his treatife, De riaturis rerum, 



* Our word chestnut is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyste-knutu, the nut of the 
cyste-tree. I may remark, on these names of fruits, that Loudon imagined that the 
peach was "introduced into England about the middle of the sixteenth century" 
(" Encyclopaedia of Ga^ening," p. 912) ; and that of the fig, the " first trees were 
brought over from Italy by Cardinal Pole, in 1525. " He seems to think that 
quinces and mulberries came into this country also in the course of the sixteenth 
century. 

t There is, however, an Anglo-Saxon name of a tree which I suspect has been 
misinterpreted. The glossaries give " ramnus, befe-l^om," and our lexicographers, 
taking the old sense of the word rhamnus, interpret it, the dog-rose. But in a very 
curious glossary of names of plants of the middle of the thirteenth century, printed 
in my "Volume of Glossaries,'" in which the meaning of the Latin word is given- 
in Anglo-Norman and in English, we have "Ramni, grosiler, befe-hom " (p. i4i). 
I have no doubt that the thefe-thorn was the gooseberry. In the dialect of Norfolk, 
gooseberries are still called theabes. 

which 



and Sentiments, 



297 



which exifts only in m3nufcripts (I quote from one in the Britiih Mufeum, 
MS. Reg. 12 G. xi.). He introduces at leaft one plant, the mandrake, 
which was fabulous, and gives feveral names which I lhall be obliged to 
leave in his original Latin, as, perhaps through corruption of the text, I 
cannot interpret them, but there can be little doubt that it is in general 
a corre6t enumeration of the plants and trees cultivated in a complete 
Englifh garden of the period. "A garden," he fays, "fhould be adorned 
on this part with rofes, lilies, the marigold, molls, and mandrakes, and on 
that part with parfley, coft, fennel, fouthernwood, coriander, fage, favery, 
hyffop, mint, rue, dittany, fmallage, pellitory, lettuce, creffes, ortulano, and 
the piony. Let there alfo be beds (arece) enriched with onions, leeks, 
garlic, melons, and fcallions (hlnnuilis). The garden is alfo ennobled by 
the cucumber which creeps on its belly, and by the foporiferous poppy, as 
well as by the daffodil and the acanthus. Nor let pot-herbs be wanting, if 
you can help it, fuch as beets, herb mercury, orache, the acedula, (forrel?) 
and the mallow. It is ufeful alfo to the gardener to have anife, muftard, 
white pepper, and wormwood." Neckam then goes on to the fruit-trees. 
"A noble garden," he fays, "will give you medlars, quinces, the pear- 
main (volema), peaches, pears of St. Regie, pomegranates, citrons (or 
lemons), oranges, almonds, dates, and figs." When Neckam fpeaks of 
a "noble garden," he 1 of courfe fpeaks of that of a great baron or prince, 
and enumerates fruits of choice, and moftly above the common range. 
Medlars and quinces were formerly held in great efteem, and much ufed. 
I have ventured to interpret volema as meaning the pearmain, which was 
confidered one of the choicer!: apples, as the apple is not mentioned in the 
lift, and as in one of the early gloffaries that meaning is attached to the 
word. Peaches were, as we have feen, known to the Anglo-Saxons ; 
and in 1276 we find flips of peach-trees mentioned in an official record as 
planted in the king's garden at Weftminfter. The pear of St. Regie was 
one of the choice kinds of pears brought from France, and it and feveral 
other kinds of pears are enumerated in the accounts of the earl of 
Lincoln's garden in Holbom (London) in 1296. It is rather furprifing 
that Mr. Hudfon Turner, in his very valuable volume on domeftic archi- 
tecture, where he fuppofes that mala aurea in Neckam's liil were intended 

a a for 



Hifiory of Domeflic Manners 



for the golden apples of the Hefperides, ftiould not have known that the 
malum, auream of the middle ages was the orange. Pomegranates, citrons, 
oranges, almonds, dates, and figs, are known to have been cultivated in 
England at different periods, but it is not probable .that the fruit came 
often to perfection. It may be remarked that Neckam gives a feparate 
chapter to the cultivation of the vine, which belonged to the vineyard, 
and not to the garden. After an enumeration of plants which were not 
grown in Weftern Europe, Neckam gives a lift of others, known for their 
medicinal qualities, fome of which can hardly have been planted in a 
garden, unlefs it belonged to a phyfician; although it appears to have 
been the cuftom to devote a corner of the garden to the medicinal plants 
moft in ufe, in order that they might be ready at hand when wanted. 
The gardener's tools in the twelfth century, as enumerated by Neckam 
in his treatife Be Utenjilibus, were few and Ample ; he had an axe, or 
twibill, a knife for grafting, a fpade, and a pruning-hook. 

John de Garlande lived during the firft half of the thirteenth century. 
He was an Englishman, but had eftablilhed himfelf as a fcholar in the 
univeriity of Paris, fo that the defcription of his garden which he gives in 
his "Di6tionarius" may be confidered as that of a garden in the neigh- 
bourhood of Paris, which, however, probably hardly differed from a garden 
in England. It may be confidered as the garden of a refpeftable burgher, 
" In matter John's garden are thefe plants, fage, pariley, dittany, hyffop, 
celandine, fennel, pellitory, the rofe, the lily, and the violet ; and at the 
fide (i. e. in the hedge), the nettle, the thiftie, and foxgloves. His 
garden alio contains medicinal herbs, namely, mercury and the mallow, 
agrimony, with nightfhade, and the marigold." Mafter John's gardener 
had alfo a garden for his potherbs, in which grew borage, leeks, garlic, 
muftard, onions, cibols, and fcallions ; and in his fhrubbery grew pimpernel, 
moufeare, felfheal, buglos, adderftongue, and "other herbs good for men's 
bodies."* Mafter John had in his fruit-garden, cherry-trees, pear-trees, 
apple-trees, plum-trees, quinces, medlars, peaches, cheftnuts, nuts, wall- 



* It may be well to remark, once for all, that it is almost impossible to identify 
some of these mediasval names of plants. 

nuts, 



and Sentiments. 



299 



nuts, figs, and grapes. Walter de Bibblefworth, writing in England 
towards the clofe of the thirteenth century, enumerates as the principal 
fruit-trees in a common garden, apples, pears, and cherries — 

Pomere, perere, e cerccer ; 

and adds the plum-tree (primer), and the quince-tree [coingner). 

The cherry, indeed, appears to have been one of the moft popular of 
fruits in England, during the mediaeval period. The records of the time 
contain purchafes of cherry-trees for the king's garden in Weftminfter in 
1238 and 1277, and cherries and cherry-trees are enumerated in all the 
gloflaries from the times of the Anglo-Saxons to the fixteenth century. 
The earl of Lincoln had cherry-trees in his garden in Holborn towards 
the clofe of the thirteenth century, and during the fame century we have 
allufions to the cultivation of the cherry in other parts of the kingdom. 
The allufions to cherries in the early poetry are not at all unfrequent, and 
they were clofely mixed up with popular manners and feelings. It 
appears to have been the cuftom, from a rather early period, to have lairs 
or feafts, probably in the cherry orchards, during the period that the fruit 
was ripe, which were called cherry-fairs, and fometimes cherry-feafts ; 
and thefe are remembered, if they do not ftill exift, in our great cherry 
diftricls, fuch as Worcefterfhire and Kent. They were brief moments of 
great gaiety and enjoyment, and the poets loved to quote them as 
emblems of the tranfitory character of all worldly things. In the latter 
part of the fourteenth century, the poet Gower, {peaking of the teachers 
of religion and morality, fays : — 

They prechen us in audience 

That no man jchalle his joule empeyre (impair), 

For alle is but a chcrye-fayre. 

And the fame writer again : — 

Sumtyme I drawe into memoyre, 
Hoivforotv may not ever lajle, 
And fo cometh hope in at Lijic, 
Whan I non other foode knozve ; 
Jlnd that endureth but a throive, 
Ryght as it were a cAery-fefie. 

So again, under the reign of Henry IV., about the year 14.II, < >ccleve, in 

In- 



Hijiory of Do?neJiic Manners 



his poem " De regimine principum," recently printed for the Roxburgh 
Club, fays (p. 47), — 

Thy lyfe, my fine, is tut a chery-felre. 

During the reft of the fifteenth century, the allufions to the cherry- 
fairs are very frequent.* Yet in face of all this, and ftill more, abundant 
evidence, Loudon (" Encyclopaedia of Gardening," edition of i8jo) fays, 
" Some fuppofe that the cherries introduced by the Romans into Britain 
were loft, and that they were re-introduced in the time of Henry VIII. 
by Richard Haines (it lhould be Harris), the fruiterer to that monarch. 
But though we have no proof that cherries were in England at the time 
of the Norman conqueft, or for fome centuries after it, yet Warton has 
proved, by a quotation from Lidgate, a poet who wrote about or before 
141^, that the hawkers in London were wont to expofe cherries for fale, 
. in the fame manner as is now done early in the feafon." 

To turn from the fruit-garden to the flower-garden, modern writers 
have fallen into many fimilar miftakes as to the fuppofed recent date of 
the introduction of various plants into this country. Loudon, for inftance, 
fays that we owe the introduction of the gilliflower, or clove-pink (dian- 
thus caryophyllus), to the Flemings, who took refuge on our fhores from 
the favage perfecutions of the duke of Alva, in the latter half of the 
fixteenth century ; whereas this flower was certainly well known, under 
the name of gillofres, ages before. Rofes, lilies, violets, and periwinkles, 
feem to have continued to be the favourite garden-flowers. A manufcript 
of the fifteenth century in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Sloane, No. 1201) 
furnilhes us with a lift of plants then confidered neceffary for a garden, 
arranged firft alphabetically, and then in claffes, of which I will here give 
verbatim the latter part, as the beft illuftration of the mediaeval notion of 
a garden, and as being, at the fame time, a very complete lift. After the 
alphabetical lift, the manufcript goes on : — 

Of the fame herles for potage. 
Borage, langdebefe (1), vyolettes, malowes, marcury, daundelyoun, avence, 

* For many references, the reader is referred to HalliwelPs " Dictionary of 
Archaic and Provincial Words," under the word Cherry-Fair. 
(1) Buglos. 

myntes, 



and Sentiments. 



myntes, sauge, parcely, goldes (2), mageroum (3), fFenelle, carawey, red nettylle, 
oculus Cbristi (4), daysys, chervelle, lckez, colewortes, rapez, tyme, cyves, betes, 
alysaundre, letyse, betayne, columbyne, allia, astralogya rotunda, astralogia longa, 
basillicam (5), dylle, deteyne, hertestong, radiche, white pyper, cabagez, sedewale, 
spynache, coliaundre, ffoothistylle (6), orage, cartabus, lympens, nepte, clarey, 
pacience. 

Of the fame heries for fauce. 

Hertestonge, sorelle, pelytory, pelytory of spayne, deteyne, vyolettes, parcely, 
myntes. 

Alfo of the fame herlezfor the coppe. 

Cost, costmary, sauge, isope, rose mary, gyllofre, goldez, clarey, mageroum, rue. 

Alfo of the fame heries for afalade. 

Buddus of .stanmarche (7), vyolette flourez, parcely, red myntes, syves (8), cresse 
of Boleyne, purselane, ramsons, calamyntes, primerose buddus, dayses, rapounses, 
daundelyoun, rokette, red nettelle, borage flourez, croppus of red ffenelle, selbes- 
tryve, chykynvvede. 

Alfo herlez tofylle (diftill). 

Endyve, rede rose, rose mary, dragans (9), skabiose, ewfrace (10), wermode, 
mog wede, beteyne, wylde tansey, sauge, isope, ersesmart. 

Alfo heries for favour and leaute. 

Gyllofre gentyle, mageroum gentyle, brasyle, palma Christ!, stycadose, meloncez, 
arcachaffe, scalacely (11), philyppendula (12), popy royalle, germaundre, cowsloppus 
of Jerusalem, verveyne, dylle, seynt Mare, garlek. 

Alfo rotys (roots) for a gardyne. 
Parsenepez, turnepez, radyche, karettes, galyngale, eryngez (13), saffYone. 

Alfo for an her I ere. 

Vynes, rosers, Kyle's, thewberies (14), almondez, bay- trees, gourdes, date-trese, 
peche-trese, pyneappulle, pyany romain, rose campy, cartabus, seliane, columbyne 
gentyle, elabre. 

The proceffes of gardening were fimple and eafy, and I he gardener's 
lkill confifted chiefly in the knowledge of the fealbns for lowing and 



(2) The corn-marigold. (3) Marjoram. (4) Clary. (5) Basil. (6) Probably 
sowthistle, although it is placed under the letter F in the alphabetical list. 
(7) The plant Alexander. (8) Cives. (9) The herb serpentine. (10) Eyebrighr. 
(11) Better known as Solomon's seal. (12) Dropwort. (13) Eringoes. (14) Goose- 
berries ? See before, p. 296. 

planting 



302 Hiftory ofDomefiic Manners 

planting different herbs and trees, and of the aftrological circumftances 
under which thefe proceffes could be performed raoft advantageoufly. 
The great ambition of the mediaeval horticultural: was to excel in the 
various myfteries of grafting, and he entertained theories on this fubject 
of the moft vifionary character, many of which were founded on the writings 
of the ancients ; for the mediaeval theorifts were accuftomed to felect 
from the doctrines of antiquity that which was mod vihonary, and it 
ufually became ftill more vifionary in their hands. Two Englilh treatifes 
on gardening were current in the fifteenth century, one founded upon 
the Latin treatife of Palladius, and entitled " Godfrey upon Palladie de 
Agricultura," the other by Nicholas Bollarde, a monk of Weftminfter — ■ 
the monks were great gardeners. Tbefe treatifes occur not unfrequently 
in manufcripts, and both are found in the Britifh Mufeum, in the Sloane 
MS., No. 7. An abridgment of them was edited by Mr. Halliwell, from 
the Porkington manufcript, in a collection of " Early Englilh Mif- 
cellanies," printed for the Warton Club. In thefe treatifes, cherry-trees 
appear to have been more than any others the fubjects of experiment, and 
to have been favourite flocks for grafting. Among the receipts given in 
thefe treatifes we may mention thofe for making cherries grow without 
Hones, and other fruit without cores ; for making the fruit of trees bear 
any colour you like ; for making old trees young 5 for making four fruit 
fweet ; and " to have grapes ripe as foon as pears or cherries." This 
was to be brought about by grafting the vine on a cherry-tree, accord- 
ing to the following directions, the fpelling of which I modernife : — 
" Set a vine by a cherry till it grow, and at the beginning of February 
when time is, make a hole through the cherry-tree at what height thou 
wilt, and draw through the vine branch fo that it fill the hole, and fliave 
away the old bark of the vine as much as fhall be in the hole, and put it 
in fo that the part fhaven fill the hole full, and let it ftand a year till they 
be tbuded' together, then cut away the root end of the vine, and lap it 
with clay round about, and keep it fo after other graftings aforefaid." 
This is from Nicholas Bollarde. Godfrey upon Palladius tells us how 
" to have many rofes. Take the hard pepins that be right ripe, and fow 
them in February or March, and when they fpring, water them well, and 

after 



and Sentiments. 3 o 3 



after a year complete thou maylt tranfplant them ; and if thou wilt have 
timely (early) roles, delve about the roots one or two handbreadths, and 
water their fcions with warm water ; and for to keep them long, put 
them in honeycombs." According to the receipts edited by Mr. Ilalli- 
well, " If thou wilt that in the ftone of a peach-apple (this was the 
ordinary name for a peach) be found a nut-kernel, graft a fpring (iprout) 
of a peach-tree on the ftock of a nut-tree. Alfo a peach-tree mail bring 
forth pomegranates, if it be fprong (fprinkled) oft times with goat's milk 
three days when it beginneth to flower. Alfo the apples of a peach-tree 
lhall wax red, if its fcion be grafted on a playne tree." Such were the 
intellectual vagaries of " fuperftitious eld." 

Peaches are frequently mentioned among the fruit of the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries; but nectarines or apricots are not met with 
before the fifteenth century. The latter were called in old Englilh by 
their French name of alricots, and fubfequently, and ftill more frequently, 
apricocks. 



3°4 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



CHAPTER XIV. 



AMUSEMENTS. PERFORMING BEARS. HAWKING AND HUNTING. RIDING. 

CARRIAGES. TRAVELLING. INNS AND TAVERNS. — HOSPITALITY. 



DURING the period of which we are treating, the fame rough fports 
were in vogue among the uneducated claffes that had exifted for 
ages before, and which continued for ages after. Many of thefe were 
trials of ftrength, fuch as wreftling and throwing weights, with archery, 
and other exercifes of that defcription ; others were of a lefs civilifed 
character, fuch as cocknghting and bear and bull-baiting. Thefe latter 
were favourite amufements, and there was fcarcely a town or village of 
any magnitude which had not its bull-ring. It was a municipal enact- 
ment in all towns and cities that no butcher mould be allowed to kill a 
bull until it had been baited. The bear was an animal in great favour in 
the middle ages, and was not only ufed for baiting, but was tamed and 
taught various performances. I have already, in a former chapter, given 

an example of a dancing bear 
under the Anglo-Saxons ; the 
accompanying cut (No. 199) is 
another, taken from a manufcript 
of the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century, in the Britifh 
Mufeum (MS. Arundel. No. 91). 
I fear the fact cannot be con- 
cealed that the ladies of former 

No. 199. A Dancing- Bear. 

days almted not unfrequently at 
thefe rough and unfeminine paftimes. There can be no doubt that they 
were cuftomary fpe&ators of the baiting of bulls and bears. Henry VIII. 's 

two 




and Sentiments. 



3°5 



two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, witneffed this coarl'e amufement, as 
we are allured by contemporary writers, with great fatisfa&ion. The 
fcene reprefented in our cut No. 200, which is copied from one of the 
carved feats, of the fourteenth century, in Gloucefler cathedral, is chiefly 




No. 200. Baiting the Bear. 

remarkable for the fmall degree of energy — the quiet dignity, in fa<5t — 
difplayed by the aclors in it. 

Hawking and hunting, efpecially the former, were the favourite 
recreations of the upper claffes. Hawking was confidered fo honourable 
an occupation, that people were in the cuftom of carrying the hawk on 
their fills when they walked or rode out, when they vifited or went to 
public alfemblies, and even in church, as a mark of their gentility. In 
the illuminations we not unfrequently fee ladies and gentlemen feated in 
converfation, bearing their hawks on their hands. There was generally 
a perche in the chamber expreffly fet afide for the favourite bird, on which 
he was placed at night, or by day when the other occupations of its 
polTeffor rendered it inconvenient to carry it 
on the hand. Such a perche, with the hawk 
upon it, is reprefented in our cut No. 201, 
taken from a manufcript of the romance of 
"Meliadus," of the fourteenth century (MS. 
Addit. in the Britilh Mufeum, No. 12,224). 
Hawking was in fome refpecTs a complicated fciencej numerous treatifes 
were written to explain and elucidate it, and it was fubmitted to Uriel: 
laws. Much knowledge and lkill were ihown in choofing the hawks, 
and in breeding and training them, and the value of a well-chofen and 
well-trained bird was considerable. When carried about by its mailer or 

R u miliivk 




3 o6 



Uiftory of Domefiic Manners 



miftrefs, the hawk was held to the hand by a fixap of leather or filk, 
called ajejft, which was fitted to the legs of the bird, and paffed between 
the fingers of the hand. Small bells were alfo attached to their legs, one 
on each. The accompanying cut (No. 202), 
from a manufcript in the Bibliotheque 
Nationale at Paris (No. 6956), reprefents 
the falconer or keeper of the hawks holding 
in one hand what appears to be the jeffe ; 
he has a bird in his right hand, while another 
is perched on a fhort poll, which is often 
alluded to in the directions for breeding 
hawks. The falconer wears hawks' gloves, 
which were made expreflly to protect: the 
hands againit the bird's talons. 
No. 202. Hawks and their Keeper. Hawking was a favourite recreation with 
the ladies, and in the illuminated manufcripts they often figure in fcenes 
of this kind. Sometimes they are on foot, as in the group reprefented in 
our cut No. 203, taken from a manufcript in the Britiih Mufeum (MS. 





No. 203. Ladies Hawking 



Reg. 2 B. vii.) . One lady has let go her hawk, which is in the act of 
ftriking a heron ; the other retains her hawk on her hand. The latter, 



a?id Sentiments. 



3°7 



as will be feen, is hooded. Each of the ladies who poifefs hawks has one 
glove only — the hawk's glove ; the other hand is without gloves. They 
took with them, as fhown here, dogs in couples to ftart the game. The 
dogs ufed for this purpofe were fpaniels, and the old treatife on domeftic 
affairs entitled " Le Menagier de Paris," gives particular directions for 
choofing them. In the illuminations, hawking parties are more frequently 
reprefented on horfeback than on foot ; and often there is a mixture of 
riders and pedeftrians. The treatife jufl referred to directs that the horfe 
for hawking ihould be a low one, eafy to mount and dilmount, and very 
quiet, that he may go flowly, and ihow no reftivenefs. Hawking appears 
to have commenced at the beginning of Auguft ; and until the middle of 
that month it was confined almoft entirely to partridges. Quails, we are 
told, came in in the middle of Auguft, and from that time forward 
everything feems to have been confidered game that came to hand, for 
when other birds fail, the ladies are told that they may hunt fieldfares, 
and even jays and magpies. September and Oftober were the bufieft 
hawking months. 

Hawking was, indeed, a favourite diverfion with the ladies, and they 
not only accompanied the gentlemen to this fport, but frequently engaged 
in it alone. The hawking of the ladies, however, appears to have been 
efpecially that of herons and water-fowl ; and this was called going to the 
river {aller en riviere), and was very commonly purfued on foot. It may 
be mentioned that the fondnefs of the ladies for the diverfion of haw king- 
is alluded to in the twelfth century by John of Salilbury. The haw king 
on the river, indeed, feems to have been that particular branch of the 
fport which gave moil pleafure to all claries, and it is that which is 
efpecially reprefented in the drawings in the Anglo-Saxon manufcripts. 
Dogs were commonly ufed in hawking to route the game in the fame 
manner as at the prefent day, but in hawking on the river, where dogs 
were of courfe lefs effective, other means were adopted. In a manufcript 
already quoted in the prefent chapter (MS. Reg. 2 B. vii.), of the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, a group of Ladies haw king on the 
banks of a river are accompanied by a man, perhaps the falconer, who 
makes a noife to route the water-fowl. Our cut No. 204 is taken from 



3°< 



Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 



a very interefting manufcript of the fourteenth century, made for the 
monaftery of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, and now preferred in the 
library of the Britilh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.) 5 it is part of a fcene 




No. 204. Roufmg Game. 

in which ladies are hawking on a river, and a female is routing the water- 
fowl with a tabor. The fountain is one of thofe conventional objects by 
which the mediseval artift indicated a fpring, or running ftream. This 




No. 205. Following the Haivk. 

feems to have been a very common method of routing the game ; and it 
is reprefented in one of the carved feats, or mifereres (as they have been 
termed technically), in Gloucefter cathedral, which is copied in our cut 

No. 205. 



No. 205. This fcene is rather curioufly illuftrated by an anecdote told 
by an old chronicler, Ralph de Diceto, of a man who went to the river 
to hunt teal with his hawk, and roufed them with "what is called by the 
river-hawkers a tabor."* The tending of the hawks ufed in thefe diver- 
lions was no flight occupation in the mediaeval houfehold, and was the 
fubject of no little ftudy; they were cherifhed with the utmoft care, and 
carried about familiarly on the wrift in all places and under all forts of 
circumftances. It was a common pra&ice, indeed, to go to church with 
the hawk on the wrift. One of the early French poets, Gaces de la 
Buigne, who wrote a metrical treatife on hunting in the middle of the 
fourteenth century, advifes his readers to carry their hawks with them 
wherever there were affemblies of people, whether in churches or elfe- 
where — 

La ou les gens font amajfes, 
Soit en Peglife, ou autre part. 

This is explained more fully by the author of the " Menagier de 
Paris" (vol. ii. p. 296), who wrote efpecially for the inftruclion of the 
female members of his family. "At this point of falconry," he laws, 
"it is advifable more than ever to hold the hawk on the wrift, anil to 
carry it to the pleadings (courts of juftice), and among people to the 
churches, and in other affemblies, and in the ftreets, and to hold it day and 
night as continually as poflible, and fometimes to perch it in l he Greets, 
that it may fee people, horfes, carts, dogs, and become acquainted witli 

all things And fometimes, in the houfe, let it be perched on the 

dogs, that the dogs may fee it, and it them." It was thus that the 
practice of carrying a hawk on the wrift became a diftinfition of people 
of gentle blood. The annexed engraving (No. 206), taken from the 



* Quklam juvenis de domo domini Lundoniensis episcopi, spiritum habens in 
avibus coeli ludere, nisum suum docuit cercellas affectare propensius. Itaque juxta 
sonitum illius instrument quod a ripatoribus vooatur tabur, subito cercella qu;vdam 
alarum remigio pernicitur evolavit. Nisus autem illusus lupum quendam nantem 
in locis sub undis crispantibus intercepit, invasif, et cepir, et super spatium sicut 
visum est xl. pedum se cum nova prxda recepit. — Kad. de Diceto, ap, Decern 
Striptores, col. 666. 

fame 



3 io 



Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 



fame manufcript laft quoted (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), reprefents a lady- 
tending her hawks, which are feated on their " perche." 

The author of the "Menagier de Paris/' a little farther on than the 
place laft quoted (p. 3 it), goes on to fay, "At the end of the month of 

September, and after, when hawking 
of quails and partridges is over, and 
even in winter, you may hawk at 
magpies, at jackdaws, at teal, which 
are in river, or others, ... at black- 
birds, thrufhes, jays, and woodcocks ; 
and for this purpofe you may carry a 
bow and a bolt, in order that, when 
the blackbird takes fhelter in a bufh, 
and dare not quit it for the hawk 
which hovers over and watches it, 
the lady or damfel who knows how 
to fhoot may kill it with the bolt." 
The manufcript which has furnifhed 
us with the preceding illuftrations gives us the accompanying {ketch 
(No. 207) of a lady mooting with her bolt, or boujon (as it was termed in 




No. 206. A Lady and her Haivks. 








No. 


207. Ladies Shooting Rabbits. 








French), — an 


arrow with 


a large 


head, for ftriking 


birds ; 


but 


in this 


inftance the is 


aiming 


not 


at birds 


, but at rabbits. 


Archery 


was 


alio a 


favourite recreation wi 


th the ladies 


in the middle ages, and it 


no doubt is 
















in 



and Sentiments. 



3 11 



in itfelf an extremely good exercife, in a gymnaftic point of view. The 
fair mooters feem to have employed bolts more frequently than the 
fharp-headed arrows ; but there is no want of examples in the illuminated 
manufcripts in which females are reprefented as ufing the fharp-headed 
arrow, and fometimes they are feen (hooting at deer. This cuftom pre- 
vailed during a long period, and is alluded to not unfrequently at fo 
late a date as the fixteenth century. We learn from Leland's " Col- 
leftanea" (vol. iv. p. 278), that when the princefs Margaret, daughter of 
Henry VII., was on her way to Scotland, a hunting-party was got up 
for her in the park at Alnwick, and that me killed a buck with an arrow. 
Similar feats were at times performed by queen Elizabeth ; but me feems 
to have preferred the croff-bow to the long-bow. The fcene reprefented 
in our cut No. 208 is from the fame manufcript ; the relative proportions 




No. 208. The Lady at the Rabbit-Warren. 



of the dog and the rabbit feem to imply a fatirical aim. Our next cut 
(No. 209), taken from MS. Reg. 2 B. vii., reprefents ladies hunting the 
flag. One, on horfeback, is winding the horn and flart'mg the game, in 
which the other plants her arrow moll ikilfully and fcientifically. The 
dog ufed on this occafion is intended to be a greyhound. 

It mull be remarked that, in all the illuminations of the period we 
arc defcribing, which reprefent ladies engaged in hunting or hawking, 
when on horfeback they are invariably and unmiftakeablv reprefented 
riding ailride. This is evidently the cafe in this group (No. 209). It has 
been already mown, in former chapters, that from a very early period it 
was a ufual cuftom with the ladies to ride tideways, or with (ide-faddles. 
Molt of the mediaeval art ills were lb entirely ignorant of perspective, and 

thej 



312 



Hijiory of Dome flic Manners 



they were fo much tied to conventional modes of reprefenting things, 
that when, no doubt, they intended to reprefent ladies riding tideways, 
the latter feem often as if they were riding aftride. But in many inftances, 
and efpecially in the fcenes of hunting and hawking, there can be no 
doubt that they were riding in the latter fafhion ; and it is probable that 
they were taught to ride both ways, the fide-faddle being confidered the 




No. 209. Ladies Hunting the Stag. 

molt courtly, while it was confidered fafer to fit aftride in the chafe. 
A paffage has been often quoted from Gower's " Confeflio Amantis," in 
which a troop of ladies is defcribed, all mounted en fair white ambling 
horfes, with iplendid faddles, and it is added that " everichone {every one) 
ride on fide," which probably means that this was the moft falhionable 
ftyle of riding. But, as fliown in a former chapter (p. 72), it has been 
rather haftily aflumed that this is a proof that it was altogether a new 
fafhion. Our next cut (No. 210), taken from a manufcript in the French 
National Library (No. 7178), of the fourteenth century, reprefents two 
ladies riding in the modern fafhion, except that the left leg appears to be 
raifed very awkwardly ; but this appearance we muft perhaps afcribe only 
to the bad drawing. It muft be obferved alfo that thefe ladies are feated 
on the wrong fide of the horfe, which is probably an error of the 
draughtfman. Perhaps there was a different arrangement of the drefs 
for the two modes of riding, although there was fo little of what we now 
call delicacy in the mediaeval manners, that this would be by no means 

neceffary. 



and Sentiments. 



3n 



neceiTary. Chaucer defcribes the Wife of Bath as wearing (purs, and as 
enveloped in a "foot-mantle :" — 

Uppon an amblere efely fc/ie fat, 

TVymplid ful ivel, and on hire heed an hat 

As brood as is a bocler, or a targe ; 

A foot-mantel about e hire hupes (hips) large, 

And on hire feet a paire of f pores f char pe. — Cant. Tales, 1. 4 71. 

Travelling on horfeback was now more common than at an earlier 
period, and this was not unfrequently a fubject of popular complaint. In 




No. 210. Ladies Riding. 



facf, men who rode on horfeback coniidered themfelves much above the 
pedeftrians; they often went in companies, and were generally accom- 
panied with grooms, and other riotous followers, who committed all forts 
of depredations and violence on the peafantry in their way. A fatirical 
fong of the latter end of the reign of Edward I., reprefents our Saviour as 
difcouraging the practice of riding. "While God was on earth," fays the 
writer. " and wandered wide, what was the reafon he would not ride ? 



Becaufe he would not have a groom to go 1 
(or dilcontent) of any gadling to jaw or to cl 

Whil God was on erthe 

And ivondredc ivyde, 
JVhet ives the rcfoun 

Why he nolde rydc ? 



i\' his iicle, nor ll 



ud> 



For 



3H 



Hijiory of Dome flic Manners 



For he nolde no groom 

To go by hysfyde, 
Ne grucchyng of no gedelyng 

To chaule ne to chyde. 

Liften to me, horfe men," continues this fatirift, " and I will tell you 
news — that ye mall hang, and be lodged 
in hell :"— 

Herkneth hideivard, norfmen } 
A t'tdyng ich ou telle. 

That ye Jhulen hongen, 

Ant herbareiven in kelle ! 

The clergy were great riders, and 
abbots and monks are not unfrequently 
figured on horfeback. Oar cut No. 211 
(from MS. Cotton, Nero, D. vii.) repre- 
fents an abbot riding, with a hat over 
his hood ; he is giving his benediction 
in return to the falute of fome palling 
traveller. 

The knight ftill carried his fpear with him in travelling, as the foot- 
man carried his ftaff. In our cut No. 212, from a manufcript of the 

fourteenth century in the Bibliotheque 
Nationale in Paris (No. 6963), the rider, 
though not armed, carries his fpear 
with him. The faddle in this inftance 
is Angularly and rather rudely formed. 
It was a great point of vanity in the 
\ middle ages in England to hang the 
caparifons of the horfe with fmall bells, 

212. A Knight and his Steed. Whlch made * J in S lin §' noife - In the 

romance of " Richard Cceur de Lion" 
(Weber ii. 60), a meffenger coming to king Richard has no lefs than 
five hundred fuch bells fufpended to his horfe— 




No. 211. An Abbot travelling. 




His trappy s iver off tuely fylke, 
With five hundred belles rygande. 



And 



and Sentiments. 



315 



And again, in the fame romance (vol. ii. p. 223), we are told, in fpeaking 
of the fultan of " Damas," that his horfe was well furnilhed in this 

* Hys crouper heeng al fulle off belles , 

And hys peytrel, and hys arfoun ; 
Three myle myglite men here the foun. 

The bridle, however, was the part of the harnefs ufnally loaded with bells, 
and, according to Chaucer, it was a vanity efpecially affected by the 
monks 5 for the poet tells us of his monk, that — 

Whan he rood, men might his bridel heere 

Gyngle in a ivhijllyng ivynd Jo cleere, 

And eek as loivde as doth the chapel belle. — Cant. Talcs, 1. 169. 

The rider is feldom furnilhed with a whip, becaufe he urged his fteed 
forward with his fpursj but female riders and perfons of lower degree 

ve often whips, which generally 
confift of feveral lathes, each having 
ufually a knob at the end. Such a 
whip is feen in our cut No. 213, 
taken] from a manufcript of the thir- 
teenth century in the Britilh Mufeum 
(MS. Arundel. No. 91), which repre- 
fents a countryman driving a horfe 
of burthen ; and he not only ufes 
' the whip, but he tries further to urge 
him on by twitting his tail. A whip 
with one lalh — rather an unufual 
example — is in the hand of the 

woman driving the cart in our cut No. 214, which is taken from a 
manufcript of the romance of " Meliadus/' in the French National Library 
(No. 6961), belonging to the fourteenth century. The lady here is alio 
evidently riding altride. The cart in which {he is carrying home the 
wounded knight is of a fimple and rude conftruction. As yet, indeed, 
carriages for travelling were very little in life ; and to judge by the 
illuminations, they were only employed for kings and very powerful 
nobles in ceremonial proceffions. 

The 




No. 21 3. A Horftwhip. 



3 i6 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



The horfe was, after a man's own limbs, his primary agent of loco- 
motion. Perhaps no animal is fo intimately mixed up with the hiflory of 
mankind as the horfe — certainly none more fo. Our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
fathers travelled much on foot, and, as far as we know, the great impor- 
tance in which the horfe was held in the middle ages in this part of the 




Lady and Cart. 



world, began with feudalifm, and the beft and moft celebrated breed of 
horfes in Europe, from the earlieft ages of chivalry, was brought from the 
Eaft. The heroes of early romance and poetry are generally mounted on 
Arab fteeds, and thefe have often the additional merit of having been 
won by conqueft from the Saracens. In the thirteenth century they 
were obtained from Turkey and Greece ; and at a later period from 
Barbary. France, alfo, had its native breed, which enjoyed a high repu- 
tation for many valuable qualities, and efpecially for its fiercenefs in war; 
Gafcony, and, on the other fide of the Spanifh frontier, Caftile and 
Aquitaine, were much celebrated for their horfes. The Gafcons prided 
themfelves much on their horfes, and they dilplayed this pride fometimes 
in a very Angular manner. In J 172, Raymond de Venous, count of 
Touloufe, held a grand cour pleyiiere, and, as a diiplay of orientation, 
caufed thirty of his horfes to be burnt in prefence of the aflembly. It 
was a fine example of the barbarity of feudalifm. At the provincial 
fynod of Auch, held in 1303, it was ordered that archdeacons, when they 
made their diocefan circuits, fhould not go with more than five horfes, 
which fhows that the Gafcon clergy were in the habit of making a great 

diiplay 



and Sentiments. 



317 



difplay of cavalry. It appears that at this early period the bell horfes 
were imported into England from Bordeanx. It may be mentioned, in 
palling, that the male horfe only was ridden by knights or people of 
any diilin6tion, and that to ride a mare was always looked upon as a 
degradation. This feems to have been an old Teutonic prejudice, perhaps 
a religious fuperftition. 

The kinds of horfes moft commonly mentioned in the feudal ages are 
named in French (which was the language of feudalifm), the palefroi, or 
palfrey, the dcxtricr, the roncin, and the fommier. The dextrier, or 
de/lrier, was the ordinary war-horfe ; the roncin belonged efpecially to 
the fervants and attendants ; and the fom inier carried the luggage. Ladies 
efpecially rode the palfrey. The Orkney iilands appear to have been 
celebrated for their dextriers. The Ille of Man feems alio to have pro- 
duced a celebrated breed of horfes. Brittany was celebrated for its palfreys. 
The haquenee, or hackney, of the middle ages, appears to have been 
efpecially referved for females. England feems not to have been cele- 
brated for its horfes in the middle ages, and the horfes of value poffclfed 
by the Englilh kings and great nobles were, in almoft all cafes, imported 
from the Continent. The ordinary prices of horfes in England in the 
reign of Edward I., was from one to ten pounds, but choice animals were 
valued much higher. When St. Louis returned to France from his 
captivity, the abbot of Cluny prefented to the king and the queen each 
a horfe, the value of which Joinville eftimates at five hundred livres, 
equivalent to about four hundred pounds of our prefent Englilli money. 
Thefe muff have been horfes which polfelfed fome very extraordinary 
qualities, as the price is quite out of proportion to that of other hoiks at 
the fame period. In the charters publilhed by M. Gu£rard, horfes arc 
valued at forty fols, and at three pounds at various periods during the 
eleventh century. In 1202, two roncins are valued at thirty fols each, 
another at forty, two at fifty each, and two at lixtv ; the roncin of an 
arbalefter at fixty fols ; a fommier, or baggage-horfe, at forty fols; and 
three horfes, of which the kind is nol fpecifiedj at fix pounds each. 
Thefe appear to have been the ordinary prices at that period; for, though 
prices of horfes are mentioned as high as thirty-four, thirty-five, and forty 

pounds, 



3 1 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



pounds, thefe were only poffeffed or given as prefents by kings. The 
value of horfes went on riling through the thirteenth century, until 
Philippe le Hardi found it necelfary to fix it by an ordonnance, which 
limited the price which any man, whether lay or clergy, however rich, 
might give for a palfrey, to fixty pounds tournois, and that to be given by 
a fquire for a roncin to twenty pounds. The prices of horfes appear not 
to have varied much from this during the fourteenth century. In the 
middle of the century following the prices rofe much higher. 

■ Of the colours of horfes, in the middle ages, white feems to have been 
prized moft highly, and after that dapple-gray and bay or cheftnut. The 
fame colours were in favour among the Arabs. One of the poets of the 
thirteenth century, Jean Bodel, defcribes a choice Gafcon horfe as 
follows : — " His hair," he fays, " was more finning than the plumage of 
a peacock ; his head was lean, his eye gray like a falcon, his breaft large 
and fquare, his crupper broad, his thigh round, and his rump tight. They 
who faw it faid that they had never feen a handfomer animal." The 
food given to horfes in the middle ages feems to have been much the 
fame as at the prefent day. In 1435 the queen of Navarre gave carrots 
to her horfes. Although the mediaeval knight refembled the Arab in his 
love for his horfe, yet the latter was often treated hardly and even cruelly, 
and the practice of horfemanihip was painful to the rider and to the 
horfe. To be a ikilful rider was a firft-rate accomplilhment. One of the 
feats of horfemanihip pracfifed ordinarily was to jump into the faddle, in 
full armour :• — ■ 

No foot Fityames in Jlirrup flaid, 
No grafp upon the faddle laid ; 
But ivrtatlid his left hand in the mane, 
And lightly bounded from the plain. 



Though horfe-races are mentioned in two of the earlieft of the French 
metrical romances, thofe of ec Renaud de Montauban," and of " Aiol," 
they feem never to have been pra6tifed in France until very recently, 
when they were introduced in imitation of the Englilh falhion. Poil- 
horfes were firft introduced in France during the reign of Henry II., that 
is, in the middle of the fixteenth century. 

Great 



and Se?7timents. 3 1 9 



Great importance was placed in the breeding of horfes in the middle 
ages. Charlemagne, in the regulations for the adminiftration of his 
private domains, gives particular directions for the care of his brood-mares 
and ftallions. Normandy appears to have been famous for its fluds of 
horfes in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and documents {how that 
the monks took good care rigorouily to exact the tithes of their produce 
to frock the monaftic ftables. Traces of the exiftence of limilar ftuds are 
found alio in other parts of France. At this time a horle was confidered 
the handfomeft prefent that could be made by a king or a great lord, and 
horfes were often given as bribes. Thus, in 1227, the monks of the 
abbey of Troarn obtained from Guillaume de Tilli the ratification of a 
grant made to them by his father in coniideration of a gift to him of 
a mark of filver and a palfrey ; and the monks of St. Evroul, in 1165, 
purchafed a favour of the Englilh earl of Gloucefter by prefenting to him 
two palfreys eftimated to be worth twenty pounds of money of Anjou. 
Kings frequently received horfes as prefents from their (objects. The 
widow of Herbert du Mefnil gave king John of England a palfrey to 
obtain the wardlhip of her children; and one Geoffrey Fitz-Richard gave 
the fame monarch a palfrey for a conceffion in the foreft of Beaulieu. In 
1 1 72, Raimond, count of St. Gilles, having become the vaffal of the king 
of England, engaged to pay him an annual tribute of a hundred marks of 
filver, or ten dextriers, worth at leaft ten marks each. The Englilh ftuds 
appear already in the thirteenth century to have become remarkable for 
their excellence. 

Travelling, in the middle ages, was allilted by t'ew, it any, con- 
veniences, and was dangerous as well as difficult. The infecurity of the 
roads made it neceffary for travellers to affoeiate together for protection, 
as well as for company, for their journeys were Qow and dull ; and as 
they were often obliged to halt for the night where there was little or no 
accommodation, they had to carry a good deal of luggage. An inn was 
often the place of rendezvous for travellers ftarting upon the fame journey. 
It is thus that Chaucer reprefents himfelf as having taken up his quarters 
at the Tabard, in Southwark, preparatory to undertaking the journey to 
Canterbury; and at night there arrived a company of travellers benl to 

the 



3 2 o Hijiory ofDomejilc Manners 



the fame destination, who had gathered together as they came along the 
road :— 

At night was come into that hoftelrie 
Wei nyne and twenty in a companye, 
Of Jondry folk, by aventure ifalle 
In felafchipe. — Cant. Tales, 1. 23. 

Chaucer obtains the confent of the reft to his joining their fellowihip, 
which, as he defcribes it, confifted of perfons moft diffimilar in clafs and 
character. The hoft of the Tabard joins the party alfo, and it is agreed 
that, to enliven the journey, each, in his turn, lhall tell a ftory on the 
way. They then fup at a common table, drink wine, and go to bed ■ 
and at daybreak they ftart on their journey. They travelled evidently 
at a flow pace ; and at Boughton-under-Blee — a village a few miles from 
Canterbury — a canon and his yeoman, after fome hard riding, overtake 
them, and obtain permiffion to join the company. It would feem that 
the company had paifed a night fomewhere on the road, probably at 
Rochefter, — and we fliould, perhaps, have had an account of their 
reception and departure, had the collection of the " Canterbury Tales" 
been completed by their author, — and that the canon fent his yeoman 
to watch for any company of travellers who fliould halt at the hoftelry, 
that he might join them, but he had been too late to ftart with them, 
and had, therefore, ridden hard to overtake them : — 

His yeman eek wasful of curtefye, 

Andfeid, "Sires, now in the morive tyde 

Out of your oftelry I faugh you ryde, 

A nd warned heer my lord and foverayn, 

Which that to ryden with yow is ful fayn, 

For his difport ; he loveth daliaunce.'" — Cant. Tales, 1. 12,515. 

A little further on, on the road, the Pardoner is called upon to tell his 
tale. He replies — 

"Itfchal be doon" quod he, "and that anoon. 

But fir ft,'''' quod he, " here, at this ale-flake, 

I will both drynke and byten on a cake.'''' — Ibid., 1. 13,735. 

The road-fide ale-houfe, where drink was fold to travellers, and to 
the country-people of the neighbourhood, was fcattered over the more 

populous 



and Sentiments. 



3 2 



populous and frequented parts of the country from an early period, and is 
not unfrequently alluded to in popular writers. It was indicated by a 
ftake projecting from the houfe, on which fome object was hung for a 




5. A Pilgrim at the Ale-Stake. 

fign, and is fometimes reprefented in the illuminations of manufcripts. 

Our cut No. 215, taken from a manufcript of the fourteenth century, 

in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 10 

E. iv.), reprefents one of thofe ale- 

houfes, at which a pilgrim is halting 

to take refrefhment. The keeper of 

the ale-houfe, in this inftance, is a 

woman, the ale-wife, and the ftake 

appears to be a befom. In another 

(No. 216), taken from a manufcript 

copy of the " Moralization of Chefs," 

by Jacques de Ceflbles, of the earlier 

part of the fifteenth century (MS. Reg. 

19 C. xi.), a round fign is fufpended on 

the ftake, with a figure in the middle, 

which may poffibly be intended to re- 

prefent a bull). A garland was not 

unfrequently hung upon the ftake 5 

"fbmpnour," lays : — 

A garland had he jet upon his heed, 

As grct as it were for an ale-Hake. — Cant. Talcs, I. 688. 

A bufh was ftill more common, and gave rife to the proverb thai "good 

T T wine 




th 



No. 216. The Road-fide Inn. 

i Chaucer, defcnbmg Ins 



3 22 



Hiftory of Dome flic Manners 



wine needs no bufh," that is, it will be eafily found out without any fign 
to direct people to it. A buih fufpended to the fign of a tavern will be 
feen in our cut (No. 224) to the prefent chapter. 

Lydgate compofed his poem of the " Storie of Thebes," as a con- 
tinuation of Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," and in the prologue he 
defcribes himfelf as arriving in Canterbury, while the pilgrims were 




No. 21 7. The Canterbury Pilgrims. 

there, and accidentally taking up his lodging at the fame inn. He thus 
feeks and obtains permiffion to be one of the fellowfhip, and returns from 
Canterbury in their company. Our cut No. 217, taken from a fine 
manufcript of Lydgate's poem (MS. Reg. 18 D. ii.), reprefents the pil- 
grims leaving Canterbury, and is not only a good illuftration of the 
practice of travelling in companies, but it furnifhes us with a chara&eriftic 
picfure of a mediaeval town. 

This readinefs of travellers to join company with each other was not 

confined 



and Sentiments. 



3 2 3 



confined to any clalS of fociety, but was general among them all, and not 
unfrequently led to the formation of friendihips and alliances between 
thofe who had previouily been ftrangers to one another. In the interefting 
romance of "Blonde of Oxford/' compofed in the thirteenth century, 
when Jean of Dammartin came to leek his fortune in England, and was 
riding from Dover to London, attended by a faithful fervant, he overtook 
the earl of Oxford, who was on his way to London, with a numerous 
retinue of armed followers. Jean, having learnt from the earl's followers 
who he was, introduced himfelf to him, and was finally taken into his 
fervice. Subfequently, in the fame romance, Jean of Dammartin, return- 
ing to England, takes up his lodging in a handfome hotel in London, and 
while his man Robin puts the hories in the ftable, he walks out into the 
ftreet, and fees a large company who had juft arrived, confitfing of fquires, 
fervants, knights, clerks, priefts, ferving-lads {gar$ons), and men who 
attended the baggage horfes (Jbmmiers). Jean aiked one of the efquires 
who they all were, what was their bufinefs, and where they were going; 
and was informed that it was the earl of Gloucefler, who had come to 
London about fome bufinefs, and was going on the morrow to Oxford, to 
be married to the lady Blonde, the obje£t of Jean's affections. Next 
morning the earl began his journey at daybreak, and Jean and his 
fervant, who were mounted ready, joined the company. There was fo 
little unufual in this, that the intruders feem, for a while, not to have 
been noticed, until, at length, the earl obferved Jean, and began to 
interrogate him: "Friend," laid he, "you are welcome ; what is your 
name ?" — 

Amis, bienjujics wne, 

Content fu -vojlrc non pclc? — Romanco of Blonde, 1. 2,627. 

Jean gave him an aifumed name, laid he was a merchant, and offered to 
fell the earl his horle, but they could not agree upon the terms. They 
continued converfing together during the reft of the journey. As they 
proceeded they encountered a fhower of rain, which wetted the carl, who 
was falhionably and thinly clothed. Jean fmiled at the impatieuce with 
which he feemed to bear this milhap, and when aiked to tell the caufe 
of his mirth, laid, "If I were a rich man, like you, 1 fhould always carrj 



324 Hi/lory of Domejiic Maimers 

a houfe with me, fo that I could go into it when the rain came, and not 
get my clothes dirtied and wet." The earl and his followers fet Jean 
down for a fool, and looked forward to be made merry by him. Soon 
afterwards they came to the banks of a river, into which the earl rode, 
without firft afcertaining if it were fordable, and he was carried away by 
the ftream, and only laved from drowning by a fiiherman in a boat. The 
reft of the company found a ford, where they paffed the river without 
danger. The earl's clothes had now been completely foaked in the 
water, and, as his baggage-horfes were too far in the rear, he made one 
of his knights ftrip, and give him his dry clothes, and left him to make 
the beft of his wet ones. " If I were as rich, and had fo many men, as 
you," faid Jean, laughing again, "I would not be expofed to misfortunes 
of this kind, for I would carry a bridge with me." The earl and his 
retinue were merry again, at what they fuppofed to be the folly of their 
travelling companion. They were now near Oxford, and Jean took his 
leave of the earl of Gloucefter. We learn, in the courfe of the ftory, 
that all that Jean meant by the houfe, was that the earl ought to have 
had at hand a good cloak and cape to cover his fine clothes in cafe of 
rain ; and that, by the bridge, he intended to intimate that he ought to 
have fent fome of his men to afcertain the depth of the river before he 
went into it ! 

Thefe illuftrations of the manner and inconveniences of travelling- 
apply more efpecially to thofe who could travel on horfeback ; but the 
difficulties were ftill greater for the numerous clafs of people who were 
obliged to travel on foot, and who could rarely make fure of reaching, at 
the end of each day's journey, a place where they could obtain a lodging. 
They, moreover, had alfo to take with them a certain quantity of 
baggage. Foot-travellers feem to have had fometimes a mule or a 
donkey, to carry luggage, or for the weak women and children. Every 
one will remember the mediaeval fable of the old man and his afs, in 
which a father and his fon have the one afs between them. In mediaeval 
illuminations reprefenting the flight into Egypt, Jofeph is often repre- 
fented as walking, while the Virgin and Child ride upon an afs which he 
is leading. The party of foot- travellers in our cut No. 218, taken from a 

manufcript 



and Sentiments. 



3 2 5 



manufcript of the beginning of the fourteenth century (MS. Reg. 2 B. 
vii.), forms part of a group reprefenting the relatives of Thomas Beckett 
driven into exile by king Henry [I. ; they are making their way to the 
fea-lhore on foot, perhaps to fhow that they were not of very high condi- 
tion in life. 

In Chaucer, it is a matter of turpi 
little luggage that he carried only a 
male, or portmanteau, on his horfe's 
crupper, and even that was doubled 
up (tweyfold) on account of its empti- 
nefs : — 



ife that th 



noun" had ll> 




**C^-- 



No. 21 8. Travellers 



ui. male tiveyfold on his c roper lay, 
Itfeemed that he carted lit el array, 
Ai light for fomer rood this ivorthy man. 
—Cant. Tales, 1. 12,494. 

On the contrary, in the romance of _= 

"Berte," when the heroine is left to ~ 

wander in the folitary forefl, the 

writer laments that fhe had " neither 

pack-horfe laden with coffers, nor clothes folded up in males," which 

were the ordinary accompaniments of travellers of any confequence : — 

2V7 ot fommicr a coffres ne dras troujfe's en male. — It man do Berte, p. 42. 

A traveller, indeed, had many things to carry wit li him. He took pro- 
visions with him, or was obliged, at times, to reckon on what he could 
kill, or obtain undrefled, and hence he was obliged to cany cooking 
apparatus with him. He carried flint and fteel to ftrike a light, and be 
able to make a lire, as he might have to bivouac in a folitary place, or in 
the midft of a forefl. In the romance of" Garin le Loherain," when the 
count Begues of Belin finds himfelf benighted in the forefl, he prepares 
for palling the night comfortably, and, as a matter of COUrfe, draws out 
his flint {J'iiJII), and lights a fire :— 

Et li quens eft dejous Varbrt rame'; 

Prcntjonfufd,j\, It fu alumi, 

Grant et plotter, mcrveillcus cmbrafc'. —Garin lo Loherain, ii., p. 231. 

The 



326 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



The traveller alfo often carried materials for laying a bed, if benighted on 
the road 5 and he had, above all, to take fufficient money with him in 
fpecie. He fometimes alfo carried a portable tent with him, or materials 
for making one. In the Englim romance of "Ipomydon" (Weber, ii. 
343), the maiden meffenger of the heirefs of Calabria carries her tent 
with her, and ufually lodges at night under it — 

A.% they rode by the ivay } 
The mayde to the divarfe gan faye, 
" Undo my tente, and Jet te it fajle, 
For here a ivhyle I iville me ryfie" 
Mete and drynke bothe they had, 
That ivas fro home 'with them lad. 

It may be remarked that in this ftory the firft thought of every gallant 
knight who paffes is to treat the lady with violence. All thefe incum- 



'f\6h , 

■/■■ -i--)' 



mm 



f^ 




No. 219. Plundering a Traveller. 

brances, combined with the badnefs of the roads, rendered travelling flow 
— of which we might quote abundant examples. At the end of the 
twelfth century, it took Giraldus Cambrenfis four days to travel from 
Powiiland to Haughmond Abbey, near Shrewsbury. The roads, too, 
were infefted with robbers and banditti, and travellers were only fafe in 
their numbers, and in being fufficiently well armed to repel attacks. In 
the accompanying cut (No. 219), from a manufcript of the fourteenth 

century 



and Sentiments. 327 



century (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), a traveller is taking his repofe under a 
tree, — it is, perhaps, intended to be underftood that he is palling the 
night in a wood, — while he is plundered by robbers, who are here jokingly 
reprefented in the forms of monkeys. While one is emptying his 
" male" or box, the other is carrying off his girdle, with the large pouch 
attached to it, in which, no doubt, the traveller carried his money, and 
perhaps his eatables. The infecurity of the roads in the middle ages was, 
indeed, very great, for not only were the forefts rilled with bands of out- 
laws, who ftripped all who fell into their hands, but the knights and landed 
gentry, and even noblemen, took to the highways not unfrequently, and 
robbed unfcrupulouily. Moreover, they built their caflles near difficult 
paffes, or by a river where there was a bridge or ford, and where, there- 
fore, they commanded it, and there they levied arbitrary taxes on all who 
paffed, and, on the ilighteft attempt at refiftance, plundered the traveller 
of his property, and put him to death or threw him into their dungeons. 
Incidents of this kind are common in the mediaeval romances and ftories. 
Piers de Bruville, in the hiftory of Fulke Fitz-Warine, may be mentioned 
as an example of this clafs of marauders. "At that time," fays the ftory, 
" there was a knight in the country who was called Piers de Bruville. 
This Piers ufed to collect all the fons of gentlemen of the country who 
were wild, and other ribald people, and ufed to go about the country, and 
flew and robbed loyal people, merchants, and others." In the fabliau of 
the " Chevalier au Barizel," we are told of a great baron who iffued con- 
tinually from his ftrong caftle to plunder the country around. " He 
watched fo clofely the roads, that he flew all the pilgrims, and plundered 
the merchants; many of them he brought to milhap. He (pared neither 
clergy nor monk, reclufe, hermit, or canon ; and the nuns and lay-lifters 
he caufed to live in open fhame, when he had them in his power ; and 
he fpared neither dames nor maids, of whatever rank or clafs, whether 
poor or rich, or well educated or fimple, but he put them all to open 
fhame" (Barbazan, i. 209). 

The roads, in the middle ages, appear alio to have been infilled with 
beggars of all defcriptions, many of whom were cripples, and perfons 
mutilated in the molt revolting manner, the refult of feudal wantonnefs, 

and 



328 



Hijiory of Dome die Manners 



and of feudal vengeance. Our cut No. 220, alio furnilhed by a manufcript 
of the fourteenth century, reprefents a very deformed cripple, whofe 

means of locomotion are rather 
curious. The beggar and the 
cripple, too, were often only 
robbers in dilguife, who waited 
their opportunity to attack tingle 
paffengers, or who watched to 
give notice to comrades of the 
approach of richer convoys. The 
mediaeval popular flories give 
abundant inftances of robbers and others difguiling themfelves as beggars 
and cripples. Blindnefs, alfo, was common among thefe objects of com- 
miferation in the middle ages ; often, as in the cafe of mutilation of 
other kinds, the refult of deliberate violence. The fame manufcript 




No, 220. A Cripple. 




No. 221. A Blind Man and Dog. 



I have fo often quoted (MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), has furniihed our cut No. 
221, reprefenting a blind man and his dog. 

It will be eafily underftood, that when travelling was befet with fo 
many inconveniences, private hofpitality would be looked upon as one of 
the firft of virtues, for people were often obliged to have recourfe to it, 

and 



and Sentiments. 



3 2 9 



and it was feldom refilled. In the country every man's door was open 
to the ftranger who came from a diftance, unlets his appearance were 
fufpicious or threatening. In this there was a mutual advantage ; for the 
guefl generally brought with him news and information which was highly 
valued at a time when communication between one place and another 
was fo flow and uncertain. Hence the flrft queftions put to a -ftranger 
were, whence he had come, and what news he had brought with him. 
The old romances and tales furniih us with an abundance of examples of 
the widefpread feeling of hofpitality that prevailed during the middle 
ages. Even in the middle and lower claffes, people were always ready to 
fhare their meals with the ftranger who aiked for a lodging. The denial 
of fuch hofpitality was looked upon as exceptional and difgraceful, and 
was only met with from , mifers and others who were regarded as 
almoft without the pale of fociety. The early metrical ftory of " The 
Hermit," the foundation of Parnell's poem, gives us examples of the 
different forts of hofpitality with which travellers met. The hermit and 
his companion began their travels in a wild country, and at the end of 
their flrft day's journey, they were obliged to take up their lodgings with 
another hermit, who gave them the belt welcome he could, and fhared 
his provifions with them. The next evening they came to a city, where 
everybody fhut his door againft them, becaufe they were poor, till at 
length, weary and wet with rain, they fat down on the ftone fteps of a 
great manfion ; but the holt was an ufurer, and refufed to receive into his 
houfe men who promifed him fo little profit. Yet at length, to efcape 
their importunities, he allowed them to enter the yard, and ileep under a 
ftaircafe, where his maid threw them fome ftraw to lie upon, but neither 
offered them refrefhment, except fome of the refute of the table, nor 
allowed them to go to a fire to dry their clothes. The next evening they 
fought their lodging in a large abbey, where the monks received them 
with great hofpitality, and gave them plenty to eat and drink. On the 
fourth day they came to another town, where they went to the houfe of 
a rich and honeft burgher, who alio received them with all the marks 
of hofpitality. Their hoft walhcd their feet, and gave them plenty to 
eat and drink, and they were comfortably lodged tor the night. 

u u li 



330 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 

It would not be difficult to illuftrate all the incidents of this ftory by 
anecdotes of mediaeval life. The traveller who fought a lodging, without 
money to pay for it, even in private houfes, was not always well received. 
In the fabliau of the "Butcher of Abbeville" (Barbazan, iv. i), the 
butcher, returning from the market of Oifemont, is overtaken by night at 
the fmall town of Bailleuil. He determined to ftop for the night there, 
and, feeing a poor woman at her door, at the entrance of the town, he 
inquired where he could afk for a night's lodging, and the recommended 
him to the prieft, as the only perfon in the town who had wine in his 
cellar. The butcher accordingly repaired to the prieft's houfe, where he 
found that ecclefiaftic fitting on the fill of his door, and afked him to give 
him a lodging for the fake of charity. The prieft, who thought that 
there was nothing to be gained from him, refufed, telling him he would 
find plenty of people in the town who could give him a bed. As the 
butcher was leaving the town, irritated by his inhofpitable reception, he 
encountered a flock of fheep, which he learnt were the property of the 
prieft ; whereupon, felecfing the fatteft of them, he dextroufly ftole it 
away unperceived, and, returning with it into the town, he went to the 
prieft's door, found him juft clofing his houfe, for it was nightfall, and 
again alked him for lodging. The prieft afked him who he was, and 
whence he came. He replied that he had been to the market at 
Oifemont, and bought a fheep ; that he was overtaken by night, and 
fought a lodging ; and that, as it was no great confideration to him, he 
intended to kill his fheep, and fhare it with his hoft. The temptation 
was too great for the greedy prieft, and he now received the butcher into 
his houfe, treated him with great refpecf, and had a bed made for him in 
his hall. Now the prieft had — as was common with the Catholic prieft- 
hood — a concubine and a maid-fervant, and they all regaled themfelves 
on the butcher's fheep. Before the gueft left next morning, he contrived 
to fell the fheep's fkin and wool for certain confiderations feverally to the 
concubine and to the maid, and, after his departure, their rival claims led 
to a quarrel, and even to a battle. While the prieft, on his return from 
the fervice of matins, was labouring to appeafe the combatants, his fhep- 
herd entered, with the information that his beft fheep had been ftolen 

from 



and Sentiments. 



33 



from his flock, and an examination of the lkin led to the difcovery of the 
trick which had been played upon him — a punilhment, as we air told, 
which he well merited by his inhofpitable conduct. A Latin ftory of the 
thirteenth century may be coupled with the foregoing anecdote. There 
was an abbot who was very miferly and inhofpitable, and he took care to 
give all the offices in the abbey to men of his own character. This was 
efpecially the cafe with the monk who had the direction of the kofpitium, 
or gueft-boufe. One day came a minftrel to aik for a lodging, but he 
met with an unfriendly reception, was treated only with black bread and 
water to drink, and was fhown to a hard bed of flraw. Minftrels were 
not ufually treated in this inhofpitable manner, and our gueft refolved to 
be revenged. He left the abbey next morning, and a little way on his 
journey he met the abbot, who was returning home from a fliort abfence. 
"God blefs you, good abbot!" he laid, "for the noble hofpitality which 
has been fhown to me this night by your monks. The mafter of your 
gueft-houfe treated me with the choicefl wines, and placed rich difhes on 
the table for me in fuch numbers, that I would not attempt to count 
them; and when I came away this morning, he gave me a pair of lhoes, 
a girdle, and a knife." The abbot hurried home in a furious rage, fum- 
moned the offending brother before a chapter, accufed him of fquandering 
away the property of the monaftery, caufed him to be flogged and dif- 
miffed from his office, and appointed in his place another, in whole 
inhofpitable temper he could place entire confidence. 

Thefe cafes of want of hofpitality were, however, exceptions to the 
general rule. A ftranger was ufually received with great kindnefs, each 
clafs of fociety, of courfe, more or lefs by its own clafs, though, under 
fuch circum fiances, much lefs diftinfton of clafs was made than we might 
fuppofe. The ariftocratic clafs, which included what we lhould now call 
the gentry, fought hofpitality in the nearer! cattle ; for a cattle, as :i 
matter of pride and oftentation, was, more or lets, like an abbey, a place 
of hofpitality for everybody. Among the richer and more refined clattes, 
great care was taken to fhow proper courtefy to Grangers, according to 
their rank. In the cafe of a knight, the lord of the houfe and his lady, 
with their damfels, led him into a private room, took off his armour, and 

often 



33 2 



Hiflory of Domeftic Manners 



often his clothes, and gave him a change of apparel, after careful ablution. 
A fcene of this kind is reprefented in the accompanying cut (No. 222), 
taken from a manufcript of the romance of " Lancelot," of the fourteenth 
century, in the National Library in Paris (No. 6956). The hofi or his 
lady fometimes walhed the ftranger's feet themfelves. Thus, in the 
fabliau quoted above, when the hermit and his companion fought a 
lodging at the houfe of a bourgeois, they were received without queffion, 
and their hofts walhed their feet, and then gave them plenty to eat and 
drink, and a bed : — 

Li hojie orent leur pie% lave%, 
Bien Jont feu et abrevie% ; 
Jujqu' aujor a eje fe jur ent ; 

We might eafily multiply extracts illuftrative of this hofpitable feeling, as 
it exifted and was pracfifed from the twelfth century to the fifteenth. 




l M^ 




No. 222. Receiving a Stranger. 



No. 223. Receiving a Guefl. 



Our cut No. 223, taken from a manufcript of the earlier part of the 
fourteenth century (MS. Harl. No. 1527), is another reprefentation of 
the reception of a ftranger in this hofpitable manner. In the " Roman 
de la Violette" (p. 233), when its hero, Gerard, fought a lodging at a 
caftle, he was received with the greater!; hofpitality ; the lord of the caftle 
led him into the great hall, and there difarmed him, furnifhed him with 
a rich mantle, and caufed him to be bathed and waihed. In the fame 
romance (p. 237), when Gerard arrives at the little town of Mouzon, he 
goes to the houfe of a widow to aik for a night's lodging, and is received 

with 



and Sentiments, 333 



with the fame welcome. His horfe is taken into a liable, and carefully 
attended to, while the lady labours to keep him in conversation until 
fupper is ready, after which a good bed is made for him, and they all 
retire to reft. The comforts, however, which could be offered to the 
vifitor, confided often chiefly in eating and drinking. People had few 
fpare chambers, efpecially furnilhed ones, and, in the fimplicity of 
mediaeval manners, the guefts were obliged to fleep either in the fame 
room as the family, or, more ufually, in the hall, where beds were made 
for them on the floor or on the benches. "Making a bed" was a phrafe 
true in its literal fenfe, and the bed made conlifted Hill of a heap of ftraw, 
with a fheet or two thrown over it. The hoft, indeed, could often furnifh 
no more than a room of bare walls and floor as a protection from the 
weather, and the gueft had to rely as much upon his own refources for 
his perfonal comforts, as if he had had to pafs the night in the midll of a 
wild wood. Moreover the guefts, however numerous and though llrangers 
to each other, were commonly obliged to fleep together indifcriminately 
in the fame room. 

The old Anglo-Saxon feeling, that the duration of the chance vifit of 
a ftranger fhould be limited to the third day, feems Hill to have prevailed. 
A Latin rhyme, printed in the " Reliquiae Antiquse" (i. 91), tells us, — 

Verum dixit anus, quod pijeis olet tr'iduanus ; 
Ejus dc more fimili fcetet hofpes odore. 

In towns the hofpitality of the burghers was not always given gratis, 
for it was a common cuftom, even among the richer merchants, to make 
a profit by receiving guefls. Thefe letters of lodgings were diftinguilhed 
from the inn-keepers, or hoflelers, by the title of herbergeors, or people 
who gave harbour to ftrangers, and in the larger towns they were fub- 
mitted to municipal regulations. The great barons and knights were in 
the cuftom of taking up their lodgings with thefe herbergeors, rather than 
going to the public hoftels ; and thus a fort of relationfhip was formed 
between particular nobles or kings and particular burghers, on tin- ftrength 
of which the latter adopted the arms of their habitual lodgers as their 
figns. Thefe herbergeors praclifed great extortions upon their acciclent.il 

guefls, 



334 



Hiftory of "Domefiic Manners 



guefts, and they appear to have adopted various artifices to allure them to 
their houfes. Thefe extortions are the fubje£t of a very curious Latin 
poem of the thirteenth century, entitled " Peregrinus" (the Traveller), 
the author of which defcribes the arts employed to allure the traveller, 
and the extortions to which he was fubjected. It appears that perfons were 
employed to look out for the arrival of ftrangers, and that they entered 
into converfation with them, pretended to difcover that they came from 
the fame part of the country, and then, as taking efpecial intereft in their 
fellow-countrymen, recommended them to lodgings. Thefe tricks of the 
burghers who let their lodgings for hire are alluded to in other mediaeval 
writers. It appears, alfo, that both in thefe lodging-houfes and in the 
public inns, it was not an unufual practice to draw people into contracting 
heavy bills, which they had not the money to pay, and then to feize their 
baggage and even their clothes, to feveral times the amount of the debt. 




No. 224. A Hojlelry at night. 

Our cut No. 224, taken from an illumination in the unique manufcript 
of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles (fifteenth century), in the Hunterian 

Library 



and Sentiments. 



335 



Library at Glafgow, reprefents the exterior and the interior of a public 

hoftel or inn. Without, we fee the fign, and the buih fufpended to it, 

and a company of travellers arriving ; within, the bed-chambers are 

reprefented, and they illuftrate not only the practice of lodging a number 

of perfons in the fame bedroom, but alfo that of ileeping in a ftate of 

perfect nudity. Our next cut (No. 225) 

is a picture of a mediaeval tapfterj it is 

taken from one of the carved feats, or 

mifereres, in the fine pariih church of 

Ludlow, in Shropshire. It will, probably, 

be remarked that the fize of the tapfler's 

jug is rather difproportionate to that of 

his barrel ; hut mediaeval artifts often fet 

perfpective and relative proportions at 

defiance. 

The tavern in the middle ages feems 
to have been the ufual fcene of a large 
portion of the ordinary life of the lower 
clafs of fociety, and even partially of the middle clafs, and its influence 
was certainly very injurious on the manners and character of the people. 
Even the women, as we learn from a number of contemporary fongs and 
ftories, fpent much of their time drinking and gofliping in taverns, where 
great latitude was afforded for carrying on low intrigues. The tavern 
was, in fact, the general rendezvous of thofe who fought amufement, of 
whatever kind. In the "Milleres Tale," in Chaucer, Abfolon, "that 
joly was and gay," and who excelled as a mufician, frequented the taverns 
and " brewhoufes," meaning apparently the letter public-houfes where 
they only fold ale, to exhibit his fkill — 




No. 225. A Media-val Tapper. 



In al the toitn nas breiuhous ne taverne 

That he ne -vifited ivit/i his fo/as, 

Ther as that any gaylard tapjler ■was — 



Cant. Titles, 1. 3,334. 



And Chaucer's friar was well acquainted with all the taverns in tin' towns 
he vifited— 

He knew ivel the tavcrnes in every toun, 

And every ojteller or gay tapftcrc. — [bid., I. 240. 

The 



336 Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 

The tavern w.as especially the haunt of gamblers, who were encouraged 
by the " tapfter," becaufe they brought him his moll profitable cuftomers. 
As I have faid before, when his cuftomers had no money, the taverner 
took their articles of drefs for payment, and in doing this he added the 
profits of the money-lender to thofe of the taverner. In the fabliau of 
"Gautier d'Aupais," the young prodigal Gautier, hungry and pennilefs, 
arrives towards evening at a tavern, where he finds a number of guefts 
enjoying themfelves. His horfe is taken to the flable, and he joins the 
guefts, but when the moment comes for paying, and the taverner demands 
three fols, he is induced in his defperation to try his luck at the dice. 
Inftead, however, of retrieving his fortunes, he lofes his horfe and his 
robe, and is obliged to return to his father's houfe on foot, and in his 
lhirt— 

Si a perdu fa robe etfon cor ant deftrier ; 

En pure fa chemife Pen convint reperier. 

The ftory of Cortois d' Arras, in the fabliau in "Barbazan" (i. 35$), 
is fomewhat fimilar. Young Cortois, alfo a prodigal, obtains from his 
father a large fum of money as a compenfation for all his claims on the 
paternal property, and with this throws himfelf upon the world. As he 
proceeded, he heard the tavern-boy calling out from the door, " Here is 
good wine of Soiflbns, acceptable to everybody ! here credit is given to 
everybody, and no pledges taken!" with much more in the fame ftyle. 
Cortois determined to flop at the tavern. " Hoft," faid he, "how much 
do you fell your wine the feptier (a meafure of two gallons) ? and when 
was it tapped?" He was told that it had been frefh tapped that 
morning, and that the price was fix deniers. The hoft then goes on to 
difplay his accommodations. " Within are all forts of comforts ; painted 
chambers, and foft beds, raifed high with white ftraw, and made foft 
with feathers 3 here within is hoftel for love affairs, and when bed-time 
comes you will have pillows of violets to hold your head more foftly ; 
and, finally, you will have electuaries and rofe-water, to wafh your mouth 
and your face." Cortois orders a gallon of wine, and immediately after- 
wards a belle demoifelle makes her appearance, for fuch were in thefe 
times reckoned among the attractions of the tavern. It is foon arranged 

between 



and Sentiments. 



337 



between the lady and the landlord that ihe is to be Cortois' chamber- 
companion, and they all begin drinking together, the taverner perfuading 
his gueft that he owes this choice wine to the lady's love. They then go 
to caroufe in the garden, and they finifh by plundering him of his money, 
and he is obliged to leave his clothes in pledge for the payment of his 
tavern expenfes. The ale-wife was efpecially looked upon as a model of 
extortion and deceit, for lhe cheated unblufhingly, both in money and 




No. 226. The Ale-Wife' 1 End. 

meafure, and the is pointed out in popular literature as an objecl of hatred 
and of fatire. Our cut No. 226, alfo furnilhed by one of the carved 
mifereres in Ludlow Church, reprefents a fcene from Doom Ilia v : a 
demon is bearing away the deceitful ale-wife, who carries nothing with 
her but her gay head-drefs and her falfe meafure ; he is going to throw 
her into "hell-mouth," while another demon is reading her offences 
as entered in his roll, and a third is playing on the bagpipes, by way of 
welcome. 



338 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



CHAPTER XV. 

EDUCATION. LITERARY MEN AND SCRIBES. PUNISHMENTS; THE STOCKS; 

THE GALLOWS. 

I PUT together in a fhort chapter two parts of my fubjecl which may 
at the firft glance feem fomewhat difcordant, but which, I think, on 
further conlideration, will be found to be rather clofely related — they are, 
education and puniihment for offences againft the law. It can hardly be 
doubted, indeed, that, as education becomes more general and better 
regulated, if the neceffity of puniihment is not entirely taken away, its 
cruelty is greatly diminifhed. 

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, there was certainly a 
general feeling of the neceffity of extending and improving education. 
It was during this period that our great univerfities rofe into exiftence, 
and flourifhed, and thefe fchools, which provided for the higher develop- 
ment of the mind, had their thoufands of ftudents, inftead of the hundreds 
who frequent them at the prefent day. But the need of fome provision 
for education was felt moil in regard to that lefs elevated degree of 
inflruction which was required for the more youthful mind, — in fa6l, it 
was long before the people of the middle ages could be perfuaded that 
literary education was of any ufe at all, except for thofe who were to be 
made great fcholars ; the clergy itfelf, unfortunately, did not fee the 
neceffity of popular education, and although the fchools in parifh churches 
were long continued, they appear to have been conducted more and more 
with negligence. It was the mercantile clafs in the towns which made 
the firft ftep in advance, by the eftablilhment of thofe foundations which 
have continued to the prefent time under the name of grammar fchools. 
Thefe fchools are traced back to the thirteenth century, when the mer- 
chant 



and Sentiments. 



339 



chant guilds, by whom they were founded, began to aflume a greater 
degree of importance, and they were ufually intended for the general 
benefit of the town, but were combined with an ecclefiaSlical eltabliih- 
ment for performing fervices for the fouls of the members of the guilds, 
in confequence of which, at the Reformation, they became involved in 
the fuperStitious ufes, and were diffolved and refounded in the reign 
of Edward VI., fo that they are now generally known as king Edward's 
foundations. The great object of thefe Schools was to give the instruction 
neceflary for admiffion into the universities; and they were in fome 
degree the anfwer to an appeal which came deeply from the mafs of the 
people, — for there was at this time a great fpontaneous eagernefs for 
learning, both for the fake of the learning itfelf, and becaufe it was a 
road to high distinction, which was not open to the malfes in any other 
direction. It was a very common practice for poor youths to go about 
the country during vacation time, to beg money to keep them at fchool 
during term. In Piers Ploughman, among the objects of legitimate 
charity, the writer enumerates money given to — 

Sette fcolers to fcole, 
Or to font othere crajtes. — Piers Ploughman, Vis., 1. 4,525. 

And in the popular complaints of the burden of taxation, involuntary and 
voluntary, the alms given to poor fcholars are often enumerated. 

Independent, however, of what may be confidered more especially as 
feholarlhip, a confiden.ble amount of instruction began now to be fpread 
abroad. Reading and writing were becoming much more general 
accomplishments, especially among ladies. Among the amufements of 
leifure hours, indeed, reading began now to occupy a much larger place 
than had been given to it in former ages. Even Hill, popular literature — 
in the Shape of tales, and ballads and Songs — was, in a great meafure, 
communicated orally. But much had been done during the fourteenth 
century towards Spreading a tafte for literature and knowledge; books 
were multiplied, and were extenfively read ; and wants were already 
arifing which loon led the way to that mod important of modern dis- 
coveries, the art of printing. Molt gentlemen had now a few books, and 

men 



340 



Hijlory of Domejlic Manners 



men of wealth had considerable libraries. The wills of this period, 
ftill preferved, often enumerate the books poffeifed by the teftator, and 
mow the high value which was fet upon them. Many of the illumi- 
nations of the fourteenth century prefent us with ingenious, and fome- 
times fantaftic, forms of book-cafes and book-ftands. In our cut No. 227, 
from a manufcript of metrical relations of miracles of the Virgin Mary, 
now preferved in the library of the city of Soiffons in France, we have a 
monk reading, feated before a book-ftand, the table of which moves up 
and down on a fcrew. Upon this table is the inkftand, and below it 
apparently the inkbottle ; and the table has in itfelf receptacles for books 




No. 227. A Monk at his Studies. 



and paper or parchment. In the wall of the room are cupboards, alfo for 
the reception of books, as we fee by one lying loofe in them. The man 
is here feated on a ftool ; but in our cut No. 228, taken from a manu- 
fcript in the National Library in Paris (No. 6985), he is feated in a chair, 
with a writing-deik attached to it. The fcribe holds in his hand a pen, 
with which he is writing, and a knife to fcratch the parchment where 
anything may need erafion. The table here is alfo of a curious con- 
ftrucfion, and it is covered with books. Other examples are found, which 

mow 



a?id Sentiments. 



341 



{how that conliderable ingenuity was employed in varying the forms of 
fuch library tables. 

The next cut (No. 229) is taken from one of the illuminations to 
a manufcript of the " Moralization of Chefs," by Jacques de Celfoles (MS. 




No. T.7.%. A Med'ueval Writer. 

Reg. 19 C. xi.), and is intended as a fort of figurative reprefentation of 

the induftrial clafs of fociety. It is curious becaufe the figure is made to 

carry fome of the principal implements of the chief 

trades or manufactures, and thus gives us their ordinary 

forms. We need only repeat the enumeration of thefe 

from the text. It is, we are told, a man who holds in 

his right hand a pair of {hears (tines forces) j in his left 

hand he has a great knife (un grant coujiel) ; "and he 

muft have at his girdle an midland (une efcriptoire) , 

and on his ear a pen for writing (et fur I'oreille une 

pome d efcripre)." Accordingly we fee the ink-pot 

and the cafe for writing implements fufpended at the 

girdle, but by accident the pen does not appear on the 

car in our engraving. It is curious through how great 

a length of time the practice of placing the pen beh 

tinned in ufe. 




342 Hijlory of Domeflic Manners 

The punifhments of the middle ages are remarkable, flill more fo in 
other countries than in England, for a mixture of a fmall amount of 
feeling of ftricf juftice with a very large proportion of the mere feeling 
of vengeance. Savage ferocity in the commiflion of crime led to no lefs 
favage cruelty in retaliation. We have feen, in a former chapter, that 
this was not the fentiment of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, but that their 
criminal laws were extremely mild ; but after the Norman conqueft, 
more barbarous feelings on this fubject were brought over from the Con- 
tinent. Imprifonment itfelf, even before trial, was made frightfully 
cruel ; the dungeons into which the accufed were thrown were often 
filthy holes, fometimes with water running through them, and, as a 
refinement in cruelty, loathfome reptiles were bred in them, and the 
prifoners were not only allowed infufHcient food, but they were fome- 
times ftripped naked, and thrown into prifon in that condition. In the 
early Englifh romance of the " Seven Sages" (the text printed by Weber), 
when the emperor was perfuaded by his wife to order her ftep-fon for 
execution, he commanded that he fhould be taken, ftripped naked of his 
clothes, and then hanged aloft — 

Quik he het (commanded) his /one take, 

And [port him of clothes nake, 

And bet en him ivith Jcourges jlronge, 

And afterward him hegge (high) anhonge. — Weber, iii. 21. 

At the interceifion of one of the wife men, the youth is refpited and 
thrown into prifon, but without his clothing ; and when, on a fubfequent 
occafion, he was brought out of prifon for judgment, he remained ftill 
naked. 

Our three cuts which follow illuftrate the fubjeft of mediaeval punifh- 
ments for crimes and offences. The firft (No. 230) is taken from a well- 
known manufcript, in the Britifh Mufeum, of the fourteenth century 
(MS. Reg. 10 E. iv.), and reprefents a monk and a lady, whofe career 
has brought them into the flocks, an inftrument of punifhment which has 
figured in fome of our former chapters. It is a very old mode of punilhing 
offenders, and appears, under the Latin name of cippus, in early records 
of the middle ages. An old Englifh poem, quoted by Mr. Halliwell in 

his 



and Sentiments. 



343 



his Dictionary, from a manufeript at leaft as old as the fifteenth century, 
recounting the punifhments to which fome rnifdoers were condemned, 
(ays : — 

And tioenty of t/ies oder ay in a f>ytt, 
Injickkes and feturs for tofytt. 

The flocks are frequently referred to in writers of the fixteenth and 
feventeenth centuries, and they have not yet become entirely oblblete. 




No. 230. A Party in the Stocks. 

The Leeds Mercury for April 14, i860, informs us that, "A notorious 
character, named John Gambles, of Stanningley (Pudfey), having been 
convicted fome months ago for Sunday gambling, and fentenced to (it in 
the flocks for fix hoars, left the locality, returned lately, and fuffered his 
punifhment by fitting in the flocks from two till eight o'clock onThurfday 
laft." They were formerly employed alio, in place of fetters, in the 
infide of prifons — no doubt in order to caufe differing by irkibme reftraint ; 
and this was fo common that the Latin term cippus, and the French ceps, 
were commonly ufed to defignate the prifon itfelf, It may be remarked 
of thefe flocks, that they prefent a peculiarity which we may perhaps call 
a primitive character. They are not fupported on polls, or fixed in any 
way to the fpot, but evidently hold the people who are placed in them in 
confinement merely by their weight, and by the impollibility of walking 
with them on the legs, efpecially when more perfons than one arc ecu- 
fined in them. This is probably the way in which they were ufed in 
prifons. 



344 



Hijlory of Domejlic Manners 



A material part of the punifhment of the flocks, when employed in 
the open air, confifted, of courfe, in the public difgrace to which the 
victim was expofed. We might fuppofe that the fhame of fuch expofure 
was keenly felt in the middle ages, from the frequency with which it 
was employed. This expofure before the public was, we know, originally, 
the chief characteristic of the cucking-ftool, for the procefs of ducking the 
victim in the water feems to have been only added to it at a later period. 
Our cut No. 231, taken from an illumination in the unique manufcript of 




No. 231. An Offender Expofed to Public Shame. 

the " Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles," in the Hunterian Library, at Glafgow, 
reprefents a perfon thus expofed to the fcorn and derifion of the populace 
in the executioner's cart, which is drawn through the ftreets of a town. 
To be carried about in a cart was always considered as efpecially dif- 
grace ful, probably becaufe it was thus that malefactors were ufually con- 
ducted to the gallows. In the early romances of the cycle of king 
Arthur we have an incident which forms an apt illuftration of the preva- 
lence of this feeling. Sir Lancelot, when hastening to refcue his lady, 

queen 



and Sentiments 



345 



queen Guenever, has the misfortune to lofe his horfe, and, meeting with 
a carter, he feizes his cart as the only means of conveyance, for the 
weight of his armour prevented him from walking. Queen Guenever 
and her ladies, from a bay window of the cattle of fir Meliagraunce, faw 
him approach, and one of the latter exclaimed, " See, madam, where as 
rideth in a cart a goodly armed knight ! I fuppofe that he rideth to 
hanging." Guenever, however, faw by his fhield that it was fir Lancelot. 
"'Ah, moft noble knight,' fhe faid, when the faw him in this condition, 
' I fee well that thou haft been hard befted, when thou rideft in a cart.' 
Then the rebuked that lady that compared him to one riding in a cart to 
hanging. ' It was foul mouthed,' faid the queen, ' and evil compared, fo 
to compare the moft noble knight of the world in fuch a fliameful death. 
Oh Jhefu! defend him and keep him,' faid the queen, 'from all mif- 
chievous end.' " 

Our next cut (No. 232) is taken from the fame manufcript in the 
Britiih Mufeum which furnifhed us with No. 230. The playful draughtf- 




^/S^g/C^C 



No. 232. A Criminal drawn to the Gallows. 



man has reprefented a fcene from the world " upfb-down," in which 
the rabbits (or perhaps hares) are hading to execution their old enemy 
the dog. 

y y The 



346 



Hijiory of Dome flic Manners 



The gallows and the wheel were inftruments of execution of fuch 
common ufe in the middle ages that they were continually before people's 
eyes. Every town, every abbey, and almoft every large manorial lord, 
had the right of hanging, and a gallows or tree with a man hanging upon 
it was fo frequent an object in the country that it feems to have been 





No. 23^. Mediaval Ornaments of the Landfcape. 

almoft a natural ornament of a landfcape, and it is thus introduced by no 
means uncommonly in mediaeval manufcripts. The two examples given 
in our cut No. 233 are taken from the illuminations in the manufcript of 
the romance of the " Chevalereux comte d'Artois," in the manufcript 
from which this romance was printed by M. Barrois. 



and Sentiments. 347 



CHAPTER XVI. 

OLD ENGLISH COOKERY. HISTORY OF " GOURMANDISE." ENGLISH 

COOKERY OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 

BILLS OF FARE. GREAT FEASTS. 

I HAVE fpoken of the ceremonious forms of the fervice of the 
mediaeval table, but we are juft now arrived at the period when we 
begin to have full information on the compofition of the culinary dilhes 
in which our anceftors indulged, and it will perhaps be well to give a 
brief fummary of that information as illuftrative both of the period we 
have now been conlidering, and of that which follows. 

There is a part of the human frame, not very noble in itfelf, which, 
nevertheless, many people are laid to worfhip, and which has even exer- 
cifed at times a conliderable influence over man's deftinies. Gaftrolatry, 
indeed, is a worthip which, at one time or other, has prevailed in different 
forms over all parts of the world — its hiftory takes an extenfive range, and 
is not altogether without intereft. One of the firft objeds of fearch in a 
man who has juft rifen from favage life to civilization is rather naturally 
refinement in his food, and this defire more than keeps pace with the 
advance of general refinement, until cookery becomes one of the moll 
important of fecial inftitutions. During all periods of which we read in 
hillory, great public a6ts, of whatever kind, even to the confecration of a 
church, have been accompanied with feafting ; and the lame rule holds good 
throughout all the different phafes of our fecial relations. The materials 
for the hiftory of eating are, indeed, abundant, and the held is extenfive. 

William of Malmelbury, as we have feen before, tells us thai the 
Anglo-Saxons indulged in great feafting, and lived in very mean boufes ; 
whereas the Normans eat with moderation, but built for themfelves 
magnificent manfions. Various allufiona in old writers Leave little room 

for 



348 Hiflory of JDomeJiic Manners 

for doubt that our Anglo-Saxon forefathers indulged in much eating ; 
but, as far as we can gather, for our information is very imperfect, this 
indulgence confifted more in the quantity than in the quality of the food, 
for their cookery feems to have been in general what we call "plain." 
Refinement in cookery appears to have come in with the Normans ; and 
from the twelfth century to the fixteenth we can trace the love of the 
table continually increafing. The monks, whofe inftitution had, to a 
certain degree, feparated them from the reft of the world, and who 
ufually, and from the circumftances perhaps naturally, fought fenfual 
gratifications, fell foon into the fin of gluttony, and they feem to have led 
the way in refinement in the variety and elaborate character of their 
difhes. Giraldus Cambrenfis, an ecclefiaftic himfelf, complains in very 
indignant terms of the luxurious table kept by the monks of Canterbury 
in the latter half of the twelfth century ; and he relates an anecdote 
which fhows how far at that time the clergy were, in this refpect, in 
advance of the laity. One day, when Henry II. paid a vifit to Win- 
chefter, the prior and monks of St. S with in met him, and fell on their 
knees before him to complain of the tyranny of their bifhop. When the 
king afked what was their grievance, they faid that their table had been 
curtailed of three difhes. The king, fomewhat furprifed at this com- 
plaint, and imagining, no doubt, that the bifhop had not left them 
enough to eat, inquired how many difhes he had left them. They 
replied, ten; at which the king, in a fit of indignation, told them that 
he himfelf had no more than three difhes to his table, and uttered an 
imprecation againft the bifhop, unlefs he reduced them to the fame 
number. 

But although we have abundant evidence of the general fact that our 
Norman and Englifli forefathers loved the table, we have but imperfect 
information on the character of their cookery until the latter half of the 
fourteenth century, when the rules and receipts for cooking appear 
to have been very generally committed to writing, and a certain 
number of cookery-books belonging to this period and to the following 
century remain in manufcript, forming very curious records of the domeftic 
life of our forefathers. From thefe I will give a few illuftrations of this 

fubject. 



and Sentiments. 



349 



fubjeft. Thefe cookery-books fometimes contain plans for dinners of 
different defcriptions, or, as we lhould now fay, bills of fare, which enable 
us, by comparing the names of the dillies with the receipts for making 
them, to form a tolerably diftinct notion of the manner in which our 
forefathers fared at table from four to five hundred years ago. The firft 
example we ihall give is furniihed by a manufcript of the beginning of 
the fifteenth century, and belongs to the latter part of the century pre- 
ceding ; that is, to the reign of Richard II., a period remarkable for the 
falhion for luxurious living : it gives us the following bill of fare for 
the ordinary table of a gentleman, which I will arrange in the form of 
a bill of fare of the prefent day, modernizing the language, except in the 
cafe of obfolete words. 

Firft Courfe. 

Boar's head enarmed {larded), and " bruce," for pottage. 

Beef. Mutton. Pestles (legs) of Pork. 

Swan. Roasted Rabbit. Tart. 

Second Courfe. 

Drope and Rose, for pottage. 
ard. Pheasant. Chickens, " farsed" and roasted. 
" Malachis," baked. 

Third Courfe. 



Ivfal 



Conings (rabbits), in gravy, and hare, in " brase," for pottage. 

Teals, roasted. Woodcocks. Snipes. 

" Raffyolys," baked. " Flampoyntes.'" 

It may be well to make the general remark, that the ordinary number 
of courfes at dinner was three. To begin, then, with the iirlt di(h, boar's- 
head was a favourite article at table, and needs no explanation. The 
pottage which follows, under the name of bruce, was made as follows, 
according to a receipt in the fame cookery-book which has furnifhed the 
bill of fare:— 

Take the umbles of a swine, and parboil them (boil them Jlowly), and cut them 
small, and put them in a pot, with some good broth; then take the whites of 
leeks, and slit them, and cut them small, and put them in, with minced onions, ami 
let it all boil ; next take bread steeped in broth, and "draw it up" with blood and 
vinegar, and put it into a pot, with pepper and cloves, and let it boil ; and serve all 
this together. 

In 



o$o Hijiory oj Domeflic Manners 

In the fecond courfe, drope is probably an error for drore, a pottage, 
which, according to the fame cookery-book, was made as follows : — 

Take almonds, and blanch and grind them, and mix them with good meat 
broth, and seethe this in a pot ; then mince onions, and fry them in fresh " grease," 
and put them to the almonds; take small birds, and parboil them, and throw them 
into the pottage, with cinnamon and cloves and a little " fair grease," and boil the 
whole. 

Rofe was made as follows : — 

Take powdered rice, and boil it in almond-milk till it be thick, and take the 
brawn of capons and hens, beat it in a mortar, and mix it with the preceding, and 
put the whole into a pot, with powdered cinnamon and cloves, and whole mace, 
and colour it with saunders (fandal-ioood). 

It may be neceffary to explain that almond-milk confifted limply of 
almonds ground and mixed with milk or broth. The farfure, or fluffing, 
for chickens was made thus : — 

Take fresh pork, seethe it, chop it small, and grind it well ; put to it hard 
yolks of eggs, well mixed together, with dried currants, powder of cinnamon and 
maces, cubebs, and cloves whole, and roast it. 

I am unable to explain the meaning of malachis, the dilh which 
concludes this courfe. 

The firfl dilh in the third courfe, coneys, or rabbits, in gravy, was 
made as follows : — 

Take rabbits, and parboil them, and chop them in "gobbets," and seethe them 
in a pot with good broth ; then grind almonds, " dress them up" with beef broth, 
and boil this in a pot ; and, after passing it through a strainer, put it to the rabbits, 
adding to the whole cloves, maces, pines (the kernels of the fine cone), and sugar ; colour 
it with sandal-wood, saffron, bastard or other wine, and cinnamon powder mixed 
together, and add a little vinegar. 

Not lefs complicated was the boar in hrafe, or brafey : — 

Take the ribs of a boar, while they are fresh, and parboil them till they are 
half boiled ; then roast them, and, when they are roasted, chop them, and put 
them in a pot with good fresh beef broth and wine, and add cloves, maces, pines, 
currants, and powdered pepper; then put chopped onions in a pan, with fresh 
grease, fry them first and then boil them; next, take bread, steeped in broth, 
" draw it up" and put it to the onions, and colour it with sandal-wood and saffron, 
and as it settles, put a little vinegar mixed with powdered cinnamon to it ; then 

take 



ahd Se?itiments. 3 5 1 



take brawn, and cut it into slices two inches long, and throw it into the pot with 
the foregoing, and serve it all up together. 

RajTyolys were a fort of patties, made as follows : — 

Take swine's flesh, seethe it, chop it small, add to it yolks of eggs, and mix 
them well together,- put to this a little minced lard, grated cheese, powdered 
ginger, and cinnamon ; make of this balls of the size of an apple, and wrap them 
up in the cawl of the swine, each ball by itself ; make a raised crust of dough, 
and put the ball in it, and bake it 5 when they are baked, take yolks of eggs well 
beaten, with sugar and pepper, coloured with saffron, and pour this mixture over 
them. 

Flampoyntes were made thus : — 

Take good "interlarded" pork, seethe it, and chop it, and grind it small 5 put 
to it good fat cheese grated, and sugar and pepper ; put this in raised paste like the 
preceding; then make a thin leaf of dough, out of which cut small "points," fry 
these in grease, and then stick them in the foregoing mixture after it has been put 
in the crust, and bake it. 

Such was a tolerably refpeclable dinner at the end of the fourteenth 
century; but the fame treatife gives us the following bill of fare, for a 
larger dinnerpthough ftill arranged in three courfes : — 

Firjl Courfe. 

Browet farsed, and charlet, for pottage. 

Baked mallard. Teals. Small birds. Almond milk served with them. 

Capon roasted with the syrup. 

Roasted veal. Pig roasted "'endored,' and served with the yolk on his neck over 

gilt." Herons. 

A "leche." A tart of flesh. 

Second Courfe. 

Browet of Almayne and Viaunde rial for pottage. 

Mallard. Roasted rabbits. Pheasant. Venison. 

Jelly. A leche. Urchynnes (hedgehogs). 

Pome de orynge. 

Third Courfe. 

Boar in egurdouce, and Mawmene, for pottage. 

Cranes. Kid. Curlew. Partridge. (All roasted.) 

A leche. A crusfade. 

A peacock endored and roasted, and served with the skin. 

Cockagris. Flaumpoyntes. Daryoles. 

Pears in syrup. 

The 



352 Hijlory of Dome/lie Manners 

The receipt for making farfed browet, or Irowet farfyn, is literally as 
follows : — 

Take almonds and pound them, and mix with beef broth, so as to make it 
thick, and put it in a pot with cloves, maces, and figs, currants, and minced 
ginger, and let all this seethe ; take bread, and steep it in sweet wine, and "draw 
it up," and put it to the almonds with sugar; then take conyngs {rabbits), or 
rabbettes {young rabbits), or squirrels, and first parboil and then fry them, and 
partridges parboiled ; fry them whole for a lord, but otherwise chop them into 
gobbets; and when they are almost fried, cast them in a pot, and let them boil 
altogether, and colour with sandal-wood and saffron; then add vinegar and 
powdered cinnamon strained with wine, and give it a boil; then take it from the 
fire, and see that the pottage is thin, and throw in a good quantity of powdered 
ginger. 

It is repeated, at the end of this receipt, that, for a lord, a coney, 
rabbit, fquirrel, or partridge, lhould be ferved whole in this manner. 
The other pottage in this courfe, charlet, was lefs complex, and was 
made thus : — 

Take sweet cow's milk, put it in a pan, throw into it the yolks and white of 
eggs, and boiled pork, pounded, and sage ; let it boil till it curds, and colour it 
with saffron. 

The following was the fyrup for a capon : — 

Take almonds, and pound them, and mix them with wine, till they make a 
thick "milk,'" and colour it with saffron, and put it in a saucepan, and put into it 
a good quantity of figs and currants, and add ground ginger, cloves, galingale 
{a ffice much ujed in the middle ages), and cinnamon ; let all this boil ; add sugar, and 
pour it over your capon or pheasant. 

The leche in this firfl courfe was, perhaps, the dim which is called in 
the receipts a leche lumbarde, which was made thus : — 

Take raw pork, and pull off the skin, and pick out the skin sinews, and pound 
the pork in a mortar with raw eggs ; add to it sugar, salt, raisins, currants, 
minced dates, powdered pepper, and cloves; put it in a bladder, and let it seethe 
till it be done enough, and then cut it into slips of the form of peas-cods : grind 
raisins in a mortar, mix them with red wine, and put to them almond-milk, 
coloured with sandal- wood and saffron, and add pepper and cloves, and then boil 
the whole; when it is boiled, mix cinnamon and ginger with wine and pour on it, 
and so serve it. 

Browet of Almayne, which comes in with the fecond courfe of this 

dinner, 



and Sentiments. 



353 



dinner, was a rather celebrated pottage. It was made in the following 
manner : — 

Take coneys, and parboil them, and chop them in gobbets, anc J p U t them 
with ribs of pork or kid into a pot, and seethe it; then take ground almonds, and 
mix them with beef broth, and put this in a pot with cloves, maces, pines, minced 
ginger, and currants, and with onions, and boil it, and colour it with saffron, and 
when this is boiled, take the flesh out from the broth, and put it in it; and take 
alkanet" {alkanet is explained in the dictionaries as the name of a plant, tuild buglos ; it 
appears to ha-ue been used in cookery to give colour), and fry it, and press it into the 
pot through a strainer, and finally add a little vinegar and ground ginger mixed 
together. 

The compofition of viande royale was as follows : — 

Take Greek wine, or Rhenish wine, and clarified honey, and mix them well 
with ground rice, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves, saffron, sugar, mulberries, 
and sandal-wood ; boil the mixture, and salt it, and take care that it be thick. 

Pome de oringe was quite a different thing to what we mould expect 
from the name. It was made as follows : — 

Take pork liver, pound it well raw, and put to it ground pepper, doves, cin- 
namon, saffron, and currants ; make of this balls like apples, and wet them well in 
the white of eggs, and then put them in boiling water, and let them seethe, and 
when they have seethed a while, take them out, and put them on a spit, and roast 
them well ; then take parsley, and grind it, and wring it up with eggs through a 
strainer, and put a little flour to it, and with this " endore" the balls while roasting, 
and, if you will, you may take saffron, sandal-wood, or indigo, to colour them. 

Endore was the technical term of the kitchen for waihing over an 
article of cookery with yolks of eggs, or any other liquid, to give a lhiny 
appearance to its exterior when cooked. 

Both the pottages in the third courfe are rather elaborate ones. The 
following was the procefs of making boar in egurdouce, or egredouce, a 
word which of courfe means " four-fweet : " — 

Take dates, washed clean, and currants, and boil them, and pound them 
together, and in pounding put cloves to them, and mix them up with vinegar, or 
clarey, or other sweet wine, and put it in a fair pot, and boil it well ; and then put 
to it half a quartern of sugar, or else honey, and half an ounce of cinnamon in 
powder, and in the "setting down" take a little vinegar and mix with it, and half 
an ounce of ground ginger, and a little sandal-wood and saffron; ami in the 
boiling put minced ginger to it; next, take fresh brawn, and seethe it, and then cut 

z z it 



354 Hi (lory of Dome/lie Manners 



it in thin slices, and lay three in a dish, and then take half a pound of pines, and 
fry them in fresh grease, and throw the pines into it ; and when they are thoroughly 
hot take them out with a skimmer, and let them dry, and cast them into the same 
pot; and then put the syrup above the brawn in the dishes, and serve it." 

Mawmene was made according to the following receipt : — 

Take almonds and blanch them and pound them, and mix them with water 
or wine, and take the brawn of capons or pheasants, and pound it small, and mix 
it with the other, and add ground rice, and put it in a pot and let it boil ; and 
add powder of ginger and cloves, and cinnamon and sugar; and take rice, and 
parboil it and grind it, and add it to them, and colour it with sandal-wood, 
and pour it out in dishes; and take the grains of pomegranates and stick in it, or 
almonds or pines fried in grease, and strew sugar over it. 

The following was the manner of making the crujlade, mentioned in 
the third courfe of this bill of fare : — 

Take chickens, and pigeons, and small birds, and make them clean, and chop 
them to pieces, and stew them altogether in a good broth made of fair grease 
and ground pepper and cloves, and add verjus to it, and colour it with saffron ; 
then make raised crusts, and pinch them and lay the flesh therein, and put to it 
currants, and ground ginger, and cinnamon ; and take raw eggs, and break them, 
and strain them through a strainer into the pottage of the stew, and stir it well 
together, and pour it into the raised crusts, above the flesh, and then place the 
covers on them and serve them. 

The procefs of ferving a peacock "with the ikin" alfo requires fome 
explanation. The fkin was firft ftripped off, with the feathers, tail, and 
neck and head, and it was fpread on a table and ftrewed with ground 
cummin ; then the peacock was taken and roafted, and " endored" with 
raw yolks of eggs ; and when roafted, and after it had been allowed to 
cool a little, it was fewn into the ikin, and thus ferved on the table, 
always with the laft courfe, when it looked as though the bird were alive. 
To make cokagrys, you muft 

Take an old cock and pull him, and wash him, and skin him all but the legs, 
and fill him full of the stuffing made for the pome de oringe; and also take a 
pig and skin him from the middle downwards, and fill him full of the same stuff- 
ing, and sew them fast together, and seethe them; and when they have seethed a 
good while, take them up and put them on a spit, and roast them well, and endore 
them with yolks of eggs mixed with saffron; and when they are roasted, before 
placing them on the table, lay gold and silver foil on them. 

Flampoyntes 



and Sentiments. 



355 



Flampoyntes have been already explained. Pears in fyrup were 
merely boiled in wine, and feafoned with iligar and fpices. 

In thefe bills of fare, our readers who believe in the prevalence of 
"old Engliih roafl beef," will find that belief Angularly dillipated, for our 
anceftors feem to have indulged in all forts of elaborately made dilhes, in 
which immenfe quantities of fpices were employed. The number of 
receipts in thefe early cookery-books is wonderfully great, and it is e\ ident 
that people fought variety almoft above all other things. Among the 
Sloane manufcripts in the library of the Britiih Mufeum, there is a very 
complete cookery-book (MS. No. 1201) belonging to the latter part of the 
fifteenth century, which gives feven bills of fare of feven dinners, each to 
differ entirely in the dilhes compofing it from the other, with the object, 
of courfe, of giving a different dinner every day during feven conlecutive 
days. In the foregoing bills of fare, we have feen that on flefh-davs no 
fifh was introduced on the table, but filh is introduced along with flelh in 
the feven dinners juft alluded to, which are, moreover, curious for the 
number of articles, chiefly birds, introduced in them, which we are not 
now accuftomed to eat. The firft of thefe bills of fare, which are all 
limited to two courfes, runs as follows : — 

Firji Courfe, of Eleven Dijlies. 

Nowmbles (umbles) of an harte. Vyand ryalle. The syde of an hert rostede. 

Swanne with ohauderoun. Fesaunt rostede. Bytore {bittern) rostede. 

Pyke, and grete gurnarde. 

Haggesse of Almayne. Blaunche cusrade. 

A sotelte, a blake bore enarmede with golde. 

Second Courfe, of Eleven Diflies. 

Geld. Cream of almonds. 

Kyud kydde. Fillets of an herte endored. Squyrelle rost. 

Chykons (c/iickem) ylarded. Partriche and lark rost. 

Perche and porpoys rost. 

Fry tours Lumbard. Payne puffe (puff-bread). 

A soteltc, a castelle of sylver with fanes (-vanes or fags) of gold. 

It appears that at this time it was confidered mine abfolutely neceflary 
than at an earlier period, that each courfe at table [hould be accompanied 
with a fubtilty, or ornamental device in paftry, reprefenting groups oi 

various 



356 Hi/lory of Domeftic Manners 

various defcriptions, as here a black boar and a caftle. We have here the 
porpoife eaten among fifties, and the fquirrel among animals ; we have 
before feen hedgehogs ferved at table. In the " Menagier de Paris," a 
French compilation, made in the year 1393, a hedgehog is directed to 
have its throat cut, and to be Ikinned and emptied, and then to be 
arranged as a chicken, and preffed and well dried in a towel ; after this 
it was to be roafted and eaten with " cameline," a word the exact mean- 
ing of which feems not to be known ; or in pafhy, with duckling fauce. 
Squirrels were to be treated as rabbits. The fame book gives directions 
for cooking magpies, rooks, and jackdaws. The fecond of the feven bills 
of fare given in the Sloane Manufcript contains turtles (the bird) and 
throttles, roafted 5 in the third we have roafted egrets (a fpecies of heron), 
ftarlings, and linnets ; in the fourth, " martinettes ;" in the fifth, barnacles, 
"molette," fparrows, and, among fifties, minnows ; and in the fixth, 
roafted cormorants, heathcocks, iheldrakes, dotterels, and thrufties. The 
feventh bill of fare runs thus : — 

Firjl Courfe, of Nine Di/lies. 

Long wortes (vegetables). An hen in dnbate. 

Shuldres of motoun. 

Wylde goos. Wode doves. 

Fresh laumprey. Grete codlynge. 

Bonsomers. Tortons, in paste. 

Second Courfe, of Ten Difhes. 

Pynnonade (a confection of almonds and pines). 

Malardes of the rivere. 

Cotes, rost, and dampettes. 

Quayles, and goldefynche. 

Ele reversed. Breme de mere. 

Frypours ryalle. Viande en feast. 

Quarters of lambe. 

The bills of fare I have thus given are intended for dinners of mode- 
rate fize, but I might eafily have given much larger ones, though we 
fhould have learnt nothing more by them than by the fmaller ones, from 
which the reader will be able to form a very good judgment of the 
general ftyle of eating among our forefathers, when they lived well. The 

fifteenth 



and Sentiments. 357 



fifteenth century, efpecially, was celebrated for its great feafts, at which 
the confumption of provifions was enormous. The bills of expenfes of fome 
of them have been preferved. In the fixth year of the reign of Edward IV. 
(a.d. 1466), George Nevile was made archbiihop of York, and the account 
of the expenditure for the feaft on that occaiion contains the following 
articles : — Three hundred quarters of wheat, three hundred tuns of ale, one 
hundred tuns of wine, one pint of hypocras, a hundred and four oxen, 
fix wild bulls, a thoufand fheep, three hundred and four calves, the fame 
number of fwine, four hundred fwans, two thoufand geefe, a thoufand 
capons, two thoufand pigs, four hundred plovers, a hundred dozen of quails, 
two hundred dozen of the birds called " rees," a hundred and four peacocks, 
four thoufand mallards and teals, two hundred and four cranes, two 
hundred and four kids, two thoufand chickens, four thoufand pigeons, 
four thoufand crays, two hundred and four bitterns, four hundred herons, 
two hundred pheafants, five hundred partridges, four hundred woodcocks, 
one hundred curlews, a thoufand egrettes, more than five hundred flags, 
bucks, and roes, four thoufand cold venifon parties, a thoufand "parted" 
dimes of jelly, three thoufand plain dilhes of jelly, four thoufand cold 
baked tarts, fifteen hundred hot venifon parties, two thoufand hot cuftards, 
fix hundred and eight pikes and breams, twelve porpoifes and feals, with 
a proportionate quantity of Ibices, fugared delicacies, and wafers or 
cakes. 

On the inthronation of William Warham as archbiihop of Canterbury 
in 1 504, the twentieth year of the reign of Henry VII., a feaft was given 
for which the following provifions were purchafed : — Fifty-four quarters 
of wheat, twenty {hillings' worth of fine flour for making wafers, iix Inns 
or pipes of red wine, four of claret wine, one of choice white wine, and 
one of white wine for the kitchen, one butt of malmfey, one pipe of 
wine of Ofey, two tierces of Rhenilh wine, four tuns of London ale, iix 
of Kentifh ale, and twenty of Engliih beer, thirty-three pounds' worth of 
fpices, three hundred lings, fix hundred codfifih, feven barrels of faked 
falmon, forty frefh falmon, fourteen barrels of white herrings, twenty 
cades of red herrings (each cade containing fix hundred herrings, which 
would make a total of twelve thoufand), five barrels of falted fturgeons, 

two 



358 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

two barrels of faked eels, fix hundred frefh eels, eight thoufand whelks, 
five hundred pikes, four hundred tenches, a hundred carps, eight hundred 
breams, two barrels of falted lampreys, eighty frefh lampreys, fourteen 
hundred frefh lamperns, a hundred and twenty-four falted congers, two 
hundred great roaches, a quantity of feals and porpoifes, with a confider- 
able quantity of other fifh. It will be underftood at once that this feaft 
took place on a fifh day. 

This habit of profufe and luxurious living feems to have gradually 
declined during the fixteenth and firft part of the feventeenth century, 
until it was extinguifhed in the great convulfion which produced the 
interregnum. After the Reftoration, we find that the table, among all 
claffes, was furnifhed more foberly, and with plainer and more fubftantial 
difhes. 



and Sentiments. 359 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SLOW PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. ENLARGE- 
MENT OF THE HOUSES. THE HALL AND ITS FURNITURE. ARRANGE- 
MENT OF THE TABLE FOR MEALS. ABSENCE OF CLEANLINESS. 

MANNERS AT TABLE. THE PARLOUR. 

THE progrefs of fociety in the two countries which were moll clofely 
allied in this refpect, England and France, was flow during the 
fifteenth century. Both countries were engaged either in mutual hof- 
tility or in defolating civil wars, which fo utterly checked all fpirit of 
improvement, that the afpect of fociety differed little between the begin- 
ning and the end of the century in anything but drefs. At the clofe of 
the fourteenth century, the middle claffes in England had made great 
advance in wealth and in independence, and the wars of the rofes, which 
were fo destructive to the nobility, as well as the tendency of the crown 
to fet the gentry up as a balance to the power of the feudal barons, 
helped to make that advance more certain and rapid. This increafe of 
wealth appears in the multiplication of furniture and of other houfehold 
implements, efpecially thofe of a more valuable defcription. We are 
furprifed, in running our eye through the wills and inventories during 
this period, at the quantity of plate which was ufually poflefled by country 
gentlemen and refpe&able burghers. There was alio a great increafe 
both in the number and magnitude of the houfes which intervened 
between the caftle and the cottage. Inftead of having one or two bed- 
rooms, and turning people into the hall to ileep at night, we now find 
whole fuits of chambers ; while, where before, the family lived chiefly in 
the hall, privacy was fought by the addition of parlours, of which there 
were often more than one in an ordinary fized houfe. The hall was in fact 
already beginning to diminilh in importance in companion with the reli 

of 



3 6 ° 



Hi/lory of Domejlic Manners 



of the houfe. Whether in town or country, houfes of any magnitude 
were now generally built round an interior court, into which the rooms 
almofl invariably looked, only fmall and unimportant windows looking 
towards the ftreet or country. This arrangement of courfe originated in 
the neceility of ftudying fecurity, a neceffity which was never felt more 




No. 234. Court of a Houfe of the Fifteenth Century. 

than in the fifteenth century. We have lefs need to feek our illuftrations 
from manufcripts during this period, on account of the numerous examples 
of buildings which hull remain in a greater or lefs ftate of perfection, but 
ftill an illumination now and then prefents us with an interesting picture 

of 



and Sentiments. 



361 



of the architectural arrangements of a dwelling-houfe in the fifteenth 
century, which may be advantageouily compared with the buildings thai 
ftill exift. One of thefe is reprefented in our cut No. 234, taken from an 
illuminated copy of the French tranflation of Valerius Maximus (MS. 
No. 6984, in the National Library at Paris). The building to the left is 
probably the ftaircafe turret of the gateway ; that before us is the mats of 
the houfehold apartments. We are fuppofed to be Handing within the 
court. At the foot of the turret is the well, a very important object 
within the court, where it was always placed in houfes of this defcription, 
as in the troubles of thofe days the houfehold might be obliged to (hut 
themfelves up for a day or two and depend for their iupply of water 
entirely on what they could get within their walls. 

The cut here given (No. 234) is a remarkably good and perfect repre- 
fentation of the exterior, looking towards the court, of the domeftic 
buildings. The door on the ground floor to the right is probably, to judge 
by the pofition of the windows, the entrance to the hall. The fteps 
leading to the firft floor are outride the wall, an arrangement which is not 
uncommon in the exifting examples of houfes of this period in England. 
We have alfo here the open gallery round 
the chambers on the firft floor, which is 
fo frequently met with in our houfes of 
the fifteenth century. It is probable that 
within the door at the top of the external 
flight of fteps, as here reprefented, a 
fhort ftaircafe led up to the floor on which 
the chambers were fituated. Perhaps ii 
may have been a ftaircafe into the gal- 
lery, as the opening round the corner 
to the right feems to be a door from 
the gallery into the chambers. 

In another illumination in the fame 
manufcripl (cut No. 235), a knight is 
reprefented knocking at the door of a 
houfe into which he feeks admittance. The plain knocker and the ring 

3 a will 




,/ Knight r at the Door. 



362 Hijlory of "Domefiic Manners 

will be recognifed at once by all who have been accuftomed to examine 
the original doors ft'dl remaining in fo many of our old buildings, but why 
the perfon who thus fignifies his wilh to enter fhould hold the ring with 
his right hand, and the knocker with his left, is not very clear. The 
knocker, inftead of being plain, as in this cut, was often very ornamental. 
This is, of courfe, the outer door of the houfe, and our readers will not 
overlook the loophole and the fmall window through which the perfon 
who knocked might be examined, and, if neceffary, interrogated, before 
the door was opened to him. 

Let us now pafs through the door on the ground floor, always open 
by day, into the hall. This was ftill the moft fpacious apartment in the 
houfe, and it was ftill alio the public room, open to all who were admitted 
within the precincts. The hall continued to be fcantily furniflied. The 
permanent furniture confided chiefly in benches, and in a feat with a 
back to it for the fuperior members of the family. The head table at 
leaft was now generally a permanent one, and there were in general more 
permanent tables, or tables dormant, than formerly, but ftill the greater 
part of the tables in the hall were made for each meal by placing boards 
upon treftles. Cufhions, with ornamental cloths, called hankers and 
dorfers, for placing over the benches and backs of the feats of the better 
perfons at the table, were now alfo in general ufe. Tapeftry was fuf- 
pended on the walls of the hall on fpecial occafions, but it does not 
appear to have been of common ufe. Another article of furniture had 
now become common— the buffet, or ftand on which the plate and other 
veffels were arranged. Thefe articles appear to have been generally in 
the keeping of the butler, and only to have been brought into the hall 
and arranged on the buffet at meal times, for fhow as much as for ufe. 
The dinner party in our cut No. 236, taken from an illumination of a 
manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d'Artois," formerly in the 
pcffeffion of M. Barrois, a diftinguifhed and well-known collector in Paris, 
reprefents a royal party dining at a table with much fimplicity. The 
ornamental veffel on the table is probably the falt-cellar, which was a 
very important article at the feaft. Beiides the general utility of fait, it 
was regarded with profoundly fuperftitious feelings, and it was confidered 

definable 



and Sentiments. 



3 6 3 



defirable that it ihould be the firit article placed on the table. We haw 
ftill a feeling of fuperftition with regard to the fpilling of fait. A metrical 
code for the behaviour of fervants, written in the fifteenth century, direcls 
that in preparing the table for meals, the table-cloth was firil to be fpread, 




No. 236. A Dinner Scene at Court. 

and then, invariably and in all places, the fait was to be placed upon it ; 
next were to be arranged fucccllively, the knives, the bread, the wine, 
and then the meat, after which the waiter was to bring other thing-;, 
when each was called for : — 

Tu dois mcttre prem'ierement 
En tous lieux et en tout hojiel 
La nappe, ct apres le Jcl ; 
Couftcaulx, pain, -via, et puis viande, 
Puis apportcr ce quon demande. 

In our laft cut (No. 236) it will be feen that the "nappe" is duly laid, 
and upon it are feen the falt-cellar, the bread (round cakes), and the cups 
for wine. Knives are wanting, and the plates feldom appear on the 

table 



3 6 4 



Hijiory ofDomefiic Manners 



table in thefe dinner fcenes of the fifteenth century, any more than in 
the previous period. This, no doubt, arofe from the common practice at 
that time, of people carrying their own knives with them in a fheath 
attached to the girdle. We find, moreover, few knives enumerated in 
our inventories of houfehold goods and chattels. In the Englifh metrical 
" Stans Puer ad Menfam," or rules for behaviour at table, written by 
Lydgate, the gueft is told to " bring no knyves unikoured to the table," 
which can only mean that he is to keep his own knife that he carries 
with him clean. The two fervants are here duly equipped for duty, with 
the towel thrown over the fhoulder. The table appears to be placed on 
two board-lhaped treftles, but the artift has forgotten to indicate the feats. 
But in our next cut (No. 237), a very private party, taken from a manu- 




No. 2,37. A Private Dinner. 

fcript of the early French tranilation of the Decameron (in the National 
Library at Paris, No. 6887), are placed in a feat with a back to it, 
although the table is frill evidently a board placed upon treftles. It may 
be remarked that in dinner fcenes of this century, the gentlemen at table 
are almoft always reprefented with their hats on their heads. 

As we have already hinted, the inventories of this period give us 
curious information on the furniture of houfes of different defcriptions. 
We learn from one of thefe, made in 1446, that there were at that time 
belonging to the hall of the priory of Durham, one dorfal or dorfer, 
embroidered with the birds of St. Cuthbert and the arms of the church, 
five pieces of red cloth (three embroidered and two plain), no doubt for 

the 



and Sentiments. 365 



the fame purpofe of throwing over the feats ; fix cuihions ; three bafins 
of brafs ; and three wafhing-bafins. A gentleman at Northallerton, in 
Yorkihire, who made his will in 1444, had in his hall, thirteen jugs or 
pots of brafs, four bafins, and two ewers (of eourfe, for walhing the 
hands), three candlefticks, five (metal) dilhes, three kettles, nine veflels 
of lead and pewter, "utenfils of iron belonging to the hall," valued at 
two fhillings — probably the fire-irons, one dorfer and one banker. An 
inventory of a gentleman's goods in the year 1463, apparently in the 
fouthern part of England (printed in the "New Retrofpettive Review"), 
gives, as the contents of the hall, — a Handing fpear, a hanging of fiained 
work, a mappa-mundi (a map of the world) of parchment — a curious 
article for the hall, a fide-table, one "dormond" table (a permanent 
table), a beam with fix candlefticks. 

A vocabulary of the fifteenth century ("Volume of Vocabularies," 
p. 197) enumerates, as the ordinary furniture of the hall, a board, a 
treftle, a banker, a dorfer, a natte (table-cloth), a table dormant, a bafin, 
a laver, fire on a hearth, a brand or torch, a yule-block, an andiron, tongs, 
a pair of bellows, wood for the fire, a long fettle, a chair, a bench, a 
ftool, a cuihion, and a fcreen. The permanent or dormant table, is ihown 
in the fcene given in our cut No. 238, taken from the beautifully illu- 
minated manufcript of the " Roman de la Violette," at Paris, fome fac- 
fimiles from which were privately diftributed by the comte de Baftard, 
from whom I had the honour of receiving a copy. We have here alio 
the feat with its back, and the buffet with its jugs and dilhes. In 
our cut No. 236, we had the waits or trumpeters, who were always 
attached to the halls of great people to announce the commencement of 
the dinner. Only perfons of a certain rank were allowed this piece oi 
orientation; but everybody had minftrelfy to dinner who could obtain it, 
and when it was at hand. The wandering minftrel was welcome in every 
hall, and for this very reafon the clafs of ambulatory muficians was very 
numerous. In the fcene given in this cut (No. 238), the wandering 
minftrel, or, according to the ftory, a nobleman in that difguife, has jufl 
arrived, and he is allowed, without ceremony or fufpicion, to leal himfelf 
at the fire, apparently on a ftool, befide the two individuals at dinner. 

The 



366 



Hijiory of Domejiic Marnier s 



The floor of the hall was ufually paved with tiles, or with flag ftones, 
and very little care appears to have been fhown to cleanlinefs, as far as it 
was concerned, except that it was ufual to ftrew it with rulhes. Among 
the various French metrical " Contenances de Table," or directions for 




No. 238. Reception of the Minjirel. 



behaviour at table, of the fifteenth century, the perfon inftrucfed is told 
that he rauft not /pit upon the table at dinner time — 

Ne craiche par dejfus la table, 
Car c^ejl chofe dejcon-venable, 

which is neceflarily an intimation that he muft ipit upon the floor. In 
another of tbefe pieces he is told that when he walhes his mouth at table, 
he muft not rejecf the water into the bafin — 

Quant ta bouche tu laveras, 
Ou bacin point ne cracheras. 

The reafon for this rule was evidently the circumftance that one bafin 

might 



and Sentiments. 367 



might ferve for all the company ; but the alternative again was of courfe 
to fpit the water out upon the floor. Again, in one of thefe codes, the 
learner is told that when he makes fops in his wine, he muft either drink 
all the wine in the glafs, or throw what remains on the floor : — 

Enfant, fe tu fa'i-x, en ton verre 
Souppes dc -vin aucunement , 
Boy tout le nj'm enticrement, 
Ou autrement le geSle a terrc. 

Or, as it is expreffed in another fimilar code more briefly — 

Se tu fan fouppes en ton verre, 
Boy le win ou le gette a terre. 

There can be no doubt that all this muft have made an extremely dirty 
floor. Another rather naive direction fhows that no more attention was 
paid to the cleanlinefs of the benches and feats ; it is considered neceffary 
to tell the fcholar always to look at his feat before he fits down at table, 
to affure himfelf that there is nothing dirty upon it ! — 

Enfant, prens de regarder peine 
Sur kfiege ou tu teferras, 
Se aucune chofe y -verras 
Qtiifoit dejbonnefte ou -vilaine. 

The fireplace at the fide of the hall, with hearth and chimney, were 
now in general ufe. An example is given in our laft cut; another will 
be feen in our cut No. 239, and here, though evidently in the hall, and 
a monaftic hall too, the procefs of cooking is purfued at it. The monks 
appear to be taking a joyous repaft, not quite in keeping with the firki 
rule of their order, and the way in which they are conducting themfelves 
towards the women who have been introduced into the monafterv dors 
not fpeak in favour of monaftic continence. This picture is from a 
manufcript bible, of the fifteenth century, in the National Library at 
Paris (No. 6829). 

Manners at table appear to have been Lofing fome of the ftrictnefs ami 
(tiiliii'ls of their ceremonial, while they retained their rudenefs. The 
bowl of water was carried round to the guefts, and each wafhed his hands 

before 



3 68 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



before dinner, but the wafhing after dinner appears now to have been 
commonly omitted. In one of the directions for table already quoted, 




No. 2.39. A Monaftlc Ftaft. 

the fcholar is told that he muft warn himfelf when he rifes from bed in 
the morning, once at dinner, and once at fupper, in all thrice a day : — 

Enfant, cThonneur lave tes mains 
A ton lever, a ton dijner, 
Et puis au foupper, fans finer ; 
Cefont troisfoys a tout le mains. 

And again, in another fimilar code, — 

Lave tes mains devant dijner, 
Et aufii quant vouldras foupper. 

Still people put their victuals to their mouth with their fingers, for, 
though forks were certainly known in the previous century, they were 
not ufed for conveying the food to the mouth. It was confidered, never- 
thelefs, bad manners to carry the victuals to the mouth with the knife — 



Ne fai% pas ton morfel conduit- e 
A ton couflcl qui te peult nuire. 



Another 



and Sentiments. 369 



Another practice ftrictly forbidden in thefe rules was picking your 
teeth with your knife while at table. From the ufe thus made of the 
hand, in the abfence of forks, it may be fuppofed that we ihould have 
directions for keeping it clean during the procefs of eating. One of thefe 
appears droll enough to us at the prefent day. It is directed that a 
perfon fitting at table in company is not to blow his nofe with the hand, 
with which he takes his meat. Handkerchiefs were not yet in ufe, and 
the alternative of courfe was that, if any one felt the need of performing 
the operation in queftion, he was to lay down his knife, and to do it 
with the hand which held it. In one of the French codes this direction 
is given rather covertly, as follows : — 

Ne touche ton nez a main nue 
Dont ta -viande eft tenue. 

But in another it is enunciated more crudely, thus : — 

Enfant, fe ton nez eft morveux, 
Ne le torche de la mam nue 
De quoy ta viande eft tenue ,• 
Le fait eft -vilain et honteux. 

All thefe circumftances fliow a ftate of manners which was very far from 
refined. 

Among other directions for table, you are told not to leave your fpoon 
in your platter; not to return back to your plate the food you have put 
in your mouth ; not to dip your meat in the falt-cellar to fait it, but to 
take a little fait on your knife and put it on the meat; not to drink from 
a cup with a dirty mouth ; not to offer to another perfon the remains of 
your pottage ; not to eat much cheefe ; to take only two or three nuts, 
when they are placed before you ; not to play with your knife ; not to 
roll your napkin into a cord, or tie it in knots; and not to get intoxicated 
during dinner-time ! 

Our next cut (No. 240) reprefents one of the backed feats, after a 

pattern of this century, ft is taken from a manufcripl of the romance 

of Launcelot du Lac, in the National Library at Paris (No. ^94). It is 

probable that this feat belonged to the parlour, or, as the name fignifies, 

3 b converfation 



37° 



Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 



converfation room. The cuftom frill continued of making feats with 
divisions, fo that each perfon fat in a feparate compartment. A triple 




No. 240. A Domeftic Scene. 

feat of this kind is reprefented in our cut No. 241, taken from a manu- 
fcript of the French Boccaccio in the National Library at Paris. 




No. 241. A Triple Seat. 

The parlour feems to have been ornamented with more care, and to 

have 



and Sentiments. 371 



have been better furnifhed than the hall. This apartment appears to 
have been placed fometimes on the ground floor, and fometimes on the 
floor above, and large houfes had ufually two or three parlours. It had 
often windows in recelTes, with fixed feats on each fide ; and the fireplace 
was fmaller and more comfortable than that of the hall. As carpets 
came into more general ufe, the parlour was one of the firft rooms to 
receive this luxury. In the inventory I have already quoted from the 
"New Retrofpe6tive Review," the following articles of furniture are 
defcribed as being in the parlour — 

A hanging of ivorfted, red and green. 

A cupboard of ajb-boards. 

A table, and a pair of treftles. 

A branch of latten, tuith four lights. 

A pair of andirons. 

A pair of tongs. 

A form to fit upon. 

And a chair. 

This will give us a very good idea of what was the ufual furniture of the 
parlour in the fifteenth century. The only movable feats are a tingle 
bench, and one chair — perhaps a feat with a back like that fhown above. 
The table was even here formed by laying a board upon treftles. The 
cupboard was peculiar to this part of the houfe ; many of my readers will 
probably remember the parlour cupboards in our old country houfes, the 
branched candleftick of metal, fufpended from the ceiling, and the tongs 
and andirons for the fire. 

The principal articles of furniture in the parlour are all exhibited in 
illuminations in manufcripts of the fame period. The " hanging of 
worried" was, of courfe, a piece of tapefiry for the wall, or for lbme part 
of the wall, for the room was in many, perhaps in moll, cafes, only 
partially covered. Sometimes, indeed, it appears only to have been hung 
up on occasions, perhaps for company, when it feems to have been placed 
behind the chief feat.* The wall itfelf was frequently adorned with 

* A Bury will, of the date 1522, mentioned a little further on, enumerates 
among the household furniture " the steynyd clothes hangyng abowte the parlour 
behynde the halle chemny." 

paintings. 



37- 



Hiflory of Dome/lie Manners 



paintings, in common houfes rude and merely ornamental, while in others 
of a better clafs they reprefented hiftories, fcenes from romances, and 
religious fubjects, much like thofe exhibited on the tapeftries themfelves. 
In the cut annexed (No. 242), taken from a beautifully illuminated 
manufcript of the romance of " Lancelot," in the National Library at 
Paris, No. 6784, we have a reprefentation of a parlour with wall paintings 
of this kind. Morgan le Fay is mowing king Arthur the adventures of 
Lancelot, which fhe had caufed to be painted in a room in her palace. 




No, 242. Morgan le Fay jhoivlng king Arthur the Paintings of the Ad-ventures of Lancelot. 

Paintings of this kind are very often alluded to in the old writers, efpe- 
cially in the poets, as every one knows who has read the "Romance of 
the Rofe," the works of Chaucer, or that fingular and curious poem, the 
"Paftyme of Pleafure," by Stephen Hawes. Chaucer, in his "Dream," 
fpeaks of — 

A chamber faint 
Full of ftories old and divers, 
More than I can as novo reherfe. 

There was in the caftle of Dover an apartment called Arthur's Hall, 
and another named Guenevra's Chamber, which have been fuppofed to be 

fo 



and Sentiments. 



373 



fo called from the fubjects of the paintings with which they were deco- 
rated; and a ftill more curious illuftration of the foregoing drawing is tur- 
niihed by an old houfe of this period ftill exifting in New Street, Salilbury, 
a room in which preferves its painting in diftemper, occupying the upper 
part of the wall, like the ftory of Lancelot in the pictures of the room of 
Morgan le Fay. We give a fketch of the fide of this room occupied by 
the painting in the accompanying cut (No. 243). It occupies the fpace 




No. 243. IVall-F aintlngs jtill remaining in a Houfe at Salijbury. 



above the fireplace, and the windows looking into the ftreet, but it has 
been much damaged by modern alterations in the houfe. The liibjcct, 
as will at once be fcen, was of a lacred character — the offering of the 
three kings. 

The window to the left of the fireplace, which is one of the original 
windows of this houfe, has a deep fill, or feat, which was intended as one 
of the accommodations for fitting down. This was not unfrequentlv 
made with a recefs in the middle, fo as to form a feat on each fide, on 
which two perfons might fit face to face, and which was thus more con- 
venient both for conversation, and for looking through the window at 
what was going on without. This appears to have been a favourite feal 

w ith 



374 Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 

with the female part of the houfehold when employed in needlework and 
other fedentary occupations. There is an allufion to this ufe of the 
window fill in the curious old poem of the "Lady Beffy," which is pro- 
bably fomewhat obfcured by the alterations of the modern copyifi ; when 
the young princefs kneels before her father, he takes her up and feats her 
in the window : — 

I came before my father the king, 

A nd kneeled doivn upon my knee ; 
I defired him lowly of his blejfing, 

jind full foon he gave it unto me. 
And in his arms he could me thring, 

And Jet me in a ivindoivfo high. 

The words of our inventory, "a form to fit upon, and a chair," 
defcribe well the fcanty furnilhing of the rooms of a houfe at this period. 
The caufe of this poverty in movables, which arofe more from the 
general infecurity of property than the inability to procure it, is curioufly 
illuftrated by a palfage from a letter of Margaret Pafton to her hufband, 
written early in the reign of Edward IV. " Alfo," fays the lady to her 
fpoufe, " if ye be at home this Chriftmas, it were well done ye fhould do 
purvey a garniih or twain of pewter veffeL two bafins and two ewers, and 
twelve candlefticks, for ye have too few of any of thefe to ferve this place ; 
I am afraid to purvey much fluff in this place, till we be furer thereof." 
As yet, a form or bench continued to be the ufual feat, which could be 
occupied by feveral perfons at once. One chair, as in the inventory juft 
mentioned, was confidered enough for a room, and was no doubt pre- 
ferred for the perfon of moft dignity, perhaps for the lady of the houfe- 
hold. Towards the latter end of this period, however, chairs, made in a 
Ampler form, and ftools, the latter very commonly three-legged, became 
more abundant. Yet in a will dated fo late as 1522 (printed in the 
"Bury Wills" of the Camden Society), an inhabitant of Bury in Suffolk, 
who feems to have poffeffed a large houfe and a confiderable quantity of 
houfehold furniture for the time, had, of tables and chairs, only "a tabyll 
of waynlkott with to (two) joynyd treftelles, ij. joynyd ftolys of the beft, 
a gret joynyd cheyre at the deyfe in the halle — the gretteft clofe cheyre, 
ij. fote ftoles — a rounde tabyll of waynlkott with lok and key, the fecunde 

joynyd 



and Sentiments. 



375 



joynyd cheyer, ij. joynyd ftolys." The ordinary forms of chairs and ltools 
at the latter end of the fifteenth century are fhown in our cut No. 244, 
taken from a very curious fculpture in alto-relievo on one of the columns 




No. 244. Sculpture from the HotcI-de-Ville, Brujfeh. 

of the Hotel-de-Ville at Bruflels. At this time we begin to find examples 
of chairs ingeniouily conftructed, for folding up or taking to pieces, fo as 
to be eafily laid afide or carried away. Some of thefe referable exactly 
our modern camp-ftools. A curious bed- 
room chair of this conftruftion is repre- 
fented in our cut No. 245, taken from 
a fine illuminated manufcript of the 
romance of the " Comte d'Artois," of 
the fifteenth century, in the collection of 
M. Barrois of Paris, but now, I believe, in 
the library of lord Alhburnham. The 
conftruction of this chair is too evident 
to need explanation. It explains the 
phrafe, ufed in fome of our old writers, 
of unfolding a chair. 

At this time much greater ufe ap- 
pears to have been made of candles than No - 2 4S- A Bedroom Chair. 
formerly, and they feem to have been conftrudted of different fubftances 
and qualities. Candlefiicks, made ufually of the mixed metal called 

I. ) 




37 6 



Hiftory of "Domejiic Manners 



laton or latten (an alloy of brafs), were found in all houfes; they appear 
to have been ftill moftly made with a fpike on which the candle was 
track, and fometimes they were ornamented, and furnifhed with mottoes. 
John Baret, who made his will at Bury, in 1463, poffeffed a " candyl- 
fiykke of laten with a pyke," two " lowe candylftikkez of a forth," (i.e. 
to match), and three " candelftykkes of laton whereupon is wretyn grace 
me governed A teftament dated in 1493 enumerates " a lowe candil- 
ftyke of laton, oon of my candelftykes, and ij. high candilftykes of laton." 
In the will of Agas Herte of Bury, in 1522, "ij. belle canftykes and a 
leffer canflyke," occurs twice, fo that they feem to have formed two fets, 
and there is a third mention of "ij. bell canftykes." We alfo find 
mention at this time of double candlefticks, which were probably intended 
to be placed in an elevated pofition to give light to the whole apartment. 
Our inventory of the contents of the parlour contains " a branch of latten, 
with four lights," which was no doubt intended for this purpofe of lighting 
the whole room (a fort of chandelier), and appears to have been identical 
with the candlebeam, not unfrequently mentioned in the old inventories. 
A widow of Bury, named Agnes Ridges, 
who made her will in 1492, mentions 
" my candylbeme that hangyth in my 
hall with vj. bellys of laton ftandyng 
thereon," i. e. fix cups in which the 
candles were placed. Our cat No. 246 
reprefents a candlebeam with four lights. 
It is flung round a fimple pulley in the 
ceiling, by a firing which was fixed to the 
ground. It is taken from a manufcript 
of the "Traite des Tournois" (treatife 
of tournaments), by king Rene, in the 
National Library at Paris, No. 8352 ; and 
as the fcene is reprefented as taking place 
in a princely hall, which is fitted up for a feftive entertainment, we may 
take it as a curious proof of the rudenefs which was ftill mixed up with the 
magnificence of the fifteenth century. In a fine illumination in a manu- 
fcript 




No. 246. A Chandelier. 



and Sentiments. 



377 



fcript of FroiiTart in the Britifh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 18 E. 2), reprefenting 
the fatal mafque at the court of Charles VI. of France, in 139.3, in which 
feveral of the courtiers were burnt to death, we have, in the king's 
palace, a chandelier exactly like that in our laft cut, except that each 
candleftick on the beam contains two candles — a "double candleftick." 
This manufcript is of the latter part of the fifteenth century. It had 
been the cuftom, on feftive occafions, or in ceremonies where large apart- 




. 247. Candle and Torch-holders 



ments required to be lighted, to do this by means of torches which 
fervants held in their hands. This cuftom was very common, and is 
frequently fpoken of or alluded to in the mediaeval writers. Neverthelefs, 
the inconvenience and even danger attending it, led to various plans for 
fuperfeding it. One of thefe was, to fix up againll the walls of the mom 
frames for holding the torches, of which an example is given in the 
accompanying cut (No. 247), reprefenting a torch -frame, Hill preferred in 

3 c the 



378 



Hijiory of Dome flic Manners 



the Palazzo Strozzi at Florence. One of the group, it will be obferved, 
has a long fpike, intended to hold a large candle. Candleflicks fixed to 
the wall in various manners are feen in manufcripts of the fifteenth 
century j and an example is given in our cut No. 248, taken from a part 




No. 248. Ladies Seated. 

of the fame illumination of Froiflart mentioned before. The candle is 
here placed before a little image, on the upper part of the fireplace, but 
whether this was for a religious purpofe or not, is not clear. In this cut, 
the three princeffes are feated on the large chair or fettle, which is turned 
with its back to the fire. This important article of furniture is now found 
in the parlour as well as in the hall. 



and Sentiments. 379 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

IN-DOOR LIFE AND CONVERSATION. PET ANIMALS. THE DAXCE. 

RERE-SUPPERS. ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE "NANCY " TAPESTRY. 

AS people began to have lei's tafte for the publicity of the old hall, 
they gradually withdrew from it into the parlours for many of 
the purpofes to which the hall was originally devoted, and thus the latter 
loft much of its former character. The parlour was now the place 
commonly ufed for the family meals. In a curious little treatife on 
the " moft vyle and deteftable ufe of dyce play," compofed near the 
beginning of the lixteenth century, one of the interlocutors is made to 
fay, "So down we came again," i.e. from the chambers above, "into the 
parlour, and found there divers gentlemen, all ftrangers to me 5 and what 
ihould I fay more, but to dinner we went." The dinner hour, we learn 
from this fame tra£t, was then at the hour of noon ; " the table," we are 
told, "was fair fpread with diaper cloths, the cupboard garniihed with 
much goodly plate." The cupboard feems now to have been confidered 
a necelTary article of furniture in the parlour ; it had originally belonged 
to the hall, and was of fimple conftruction. One of the great objefts of 
oftentation in a rich man's houfe was his plate ; which, at dinner time, 
he brought forth, and caufed to be fpread on a table in light of his 
gueftsj afterwards, to exhibit the plate to more advantage, the table was 
made with {helves, or fteps, on which the different articles could In- 
arranged in rows one above another. It was called in French and Anglo- 
Norman a biiffet, or a dreffbir (drefler), the latter name, it is laid, being 
given to it becaufe on it the different articles were drejfis, or arranged. 
The Engliih had, in their own language, no fpecial name for this article 
of furniture, fo that they called it literally a cup-board, or board for the 
cups. In courfe of time, and efpecially when it was removed from the 

hall 



3 8o 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



hall into the parlour, this article was made more elaborately, and doors 
were added to it, for fhutting up the plate when not in ufe. It thus 
became equivalent to our modern fideboard. We have feen a figure of 




No. 249. A Sick R 



a cupboard of this more complicated ftrudfure in a cut in our laft chapter ; 
and we fliall have others of different forms in our next. 

Our cut No. 249 is a good reprefentation of the interior of a parlour 

furniihed 



and Sentime?its. 3 8 1 



furnilhed with the large feat, or fettle, and with rather an elaborate and 
elegant cupboard. The latter, however, does not belong to the picture 
itfelf, having been introduced from, another in the fame manufcript by- 
Mr. Shaw, in his beautiful work the "Dreffes and Decorations of the 
Middle Ages," from which it is here taken. It is found in a fine manu- 
fcript in the Britilh Mufeum (MS. Reg. 15 D. 1), containing the French 
translation of the " Hiftoria Scholaftica" of Peter Comeftor, and written 
in the year 1470. The fubjefit of this illumination is taken from the Scrip- 
tural ftory of Tobit, who here lies fick and blind on the fettle, having juft 
defpatched his fon Tobias on his journey to the city of Rages. The lady 
cooking is no doubt intended for his wife Anna ; it will be obferved that 
flie is following the directions of a book. Cookery books and books of 
medicinal receipts were now common. The kettle is fufpended over the 
fire by a jack of a conftrufition that occurs not unfrequently in the raami- 
fcripts of this period. The fettle is placed with its back to the window, 
which is covered with a large curtain. 

As the parlours faved the domefiic arrangements of the houfehold 
from the too great publicity of the hall, fo on the other hand they 
relieved the bedchambers from much of what had previouily been 
tranfa filed in them, and thus rendered them more private. In the poem 
of the "Lady Beifie," when the earl of Derby and Humphrey Brereton 
vifit the young princefs, they are introduced to her in her bower, or 
chamber, but the immediately conducts the latter into the parlour, in 
order to converfe with him : — 

She took him in her arms, and kiJJ'cd him times three ; 

" Welcome ," Jhe /aid, "Humphrey Brereton $ 
Hoiu haft thou fpedd in the ivcft countrey ? 

I fray thee tell me quickly and anon." 
Into a parlour they went from thence, 

There ivere no more but hee and Jhce. 

The female part of the family now palled in the parlour much of the 
time which had been formerly palled in their chambers. It was often 
their place of work. Young ladies, even of great families, were brought 
up not only Unfitly, but even tyrannically, by their mothers, who kept 
them conftantly at work, exafited from them almofl ihvilh deference and 

refpect, 



382 Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 

refpecf, and even counted upon their earnings. The parental authority 
was indeed carried to an almoft extravagant extent. There are fome 
curious inftances of this in the correfpondence of the Pafton family. 
Agnes Pafton, the wife of fir William Pafton, the judge, appears to have 
been a very harih mother. At the end of June 1454, Elizabeth Clere, a 
kinfwoman who appears to have lived in great intimacy with the family, 
fent to John Pafton, the lady's eldeft fon, the following account of the 
treatment of his fifter Elizabeth, who was of marriageable age, and for 
whom a man of the name of Scroope had been propofed as a hufband. 
"Therefore, coufin," writes Jane Clere, " mefeemeth he were good for 
my coufin your fifter, without that ye might get her a better ; and if ye 
can get a better, I would advife you to labour it in as fhort time as ye 
may goodly, for fhe was never in fo great a forrow as fhe is now-a-days, 
for the may not fpeak with no man, whofoever come, nor even may fee 
nor fpeak with my man, nor with fervants of her mother's, but that fhe 
beareth her on hand otherwife than fhe meaneth ; and fhe hath fince 
Eafter the moft part been beaten once in the week, or twice, and fome- 
times twice in a day, and her head broken in two or three places. 
Wherefore, coufin, fhe hath fent to me by friar Newton in great counfel, 
and prayeth me that I would fend to you a letter of her heavinefs, and 
pray you to be her good brother, as her truft is in you." In fpite of her 
anxiety to be married, Elizabeth Pafton did not fucceed at this time, 
but flie was foon afterwards transferred from her paternal roof to the 
houfehold of the lady Pole. It was ftill the cuftom to fend young 
ladies of family to the houfes of the great to learn manners, and it was 
not only a matter of pride and oftentation to be thus furrounded by a 
numerous train, but the noble lady whom they ferved did not difdain to 
receive payment for their board as well as employing them in profitable 
work. In a memorandum of errands to London, written by Agnes 
Pafton on the 28th of January, 1457, one is a meffage to "Elizabeth 
Pafton that fhe muft ufe herfelf to work readily, as other gentlewomen 
do, and fomewhat to help herfelf therewith. Item, to pay the lady Pole 
twenty-fix (hillings and eightpence for her board." Margaret Pafton, the 
wife of John Pafton, juft mentioned, and daughter-in-law of Agnes, 

feems 



and Sentiments. 383 



feems to have been equally ftricl with her daughters. At the beginning 
of the reign of Edward IV., ihe wrote to her fon John concerning his 
lifter Anne, who had been placed in the houfe of a kinfman of the name 
of Calthorpe. " Since ye departed," fhe fays, "my coufin Calthorpe fent 
me a letter complaining in his writing that forafmuch as he cannot be 
paid of his tenants as he hath been before this time, he propofeth to 
leffen his houfehold, and to live the ftraitlier, wherefore he defireth me to 
purvey for your lifter Anne ; he faith Ihe waxeth high (grows tall), and 
it were time to purvey her a marriage. I marvel what caufeth him to 
write fo now, either lhe hath difpleafed him, or elfe he hath taken her 
with default ; therefore I pray you commune with my coufin Clare at 
London, and weet (learn) how he is difpofed to her-ward, and fend me 
word, for I lhall be fain to fend for her, and with me lhe ihall but lofe 
her time, and without Ihe will be the better occupied the ihall oftentimes 
move (vex) me and put me in great inquietnefs ; remember what labour 
I had with your lifter, therefore do your part to help her forth, that may 
be to your worlhip and mine." There certainly appears here no great 
affection between mother and daughter. 

Among other leflbns, the ladies appear to have been taught to be 
very demure and formal in their behaviour in company. Our cut No. 250 
reprefents a party of ladies and gentlemen in the parlour engaged in 
converfation. It is taken from an illumination in the manufcript of the 
romance of the " Comte d'Artois," formerly in the polTe ffion of M. Barrois. 
They are all apparently feated on benches, which feem in this inftance to 
be made like long chefts, and placed along the fides of the wall as it' they 
ferved alfo for lockers. Thefe appear to be the only articles of furniture 
in the room. There is a certain conventional pofitiotl in molt of the 
ladies of the party which has evidently been taught, even to the holding" 
of the hands croffed. The four ladies with the gentleman between them 
are no doubt intended to be the attendants on the lady of the houfe, 
holding towards her the polition of Elizabeth and Anne Pafton. We 
have precifely the fame conventional forms in the next cut (No. 251), 
which is taken from an illumination in a manufcript of the "Legenda 
Aurea," in the National Library in Paris (No. 6889). We fee here the 

fame 



3«4 



Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 



fame demurenefs and formal croiiing of the hands among the young 
ladies, in prefence of their dame. It may be obferved that, in almofl: all 



^ \ 1 \ \ X X 




No. 250. A Convey jatlon Scene, 

the contemporary pictures of domeftic fcenes, the men, reprefented as 
vifitors, keep their hats on their heads. 




No. 251. A Social Group of the Fifteenth Century. 

One of the mod curious features in the firft of thefe fcenes is that of 

the 



a?id Se?iti??ients. 385 



the cages, eipecially that of the iquinvl, which is evidently made to turn 
round with the animal's motion, like fquirrel-cages of the prefent day. 
We have now frequent allufions to the keeping of birds in cao-es, and 
parrots, magpies, jays, and various tinging birds, are often mentioned 
among domeftic pets. During the earlier half of the century of which 
we are now more eipecially fpeaking, the poems of Lydgate furnifh 
us with feveral examples. Thus, in that entitled "The Chorle and 
the Bird," we are told — 

The chorle (countryman) was gladde that he this birdde hadde take, 

Mery of chere, of looke, and of -vifagc, 
And in al hafte he caft for to make 

Within his houfe a pratie litelle cage, 
And with hirfonge to rejoife his cor age. 

And in another of Lydgate's minor poems, it is laid of Spring, — 

Whiche fejoiin prykethe (stirs up)fref/he corages, 
Rejoijfethe beaftys ivalkyng in tier pafturc, 
Caufith briddys to fyngen in ther cages, 
Whan blood reneivyth in e-very creature. 

Among thefe, we find birds mentioned which are not now ulually kept in 
cages. Thus, in a manufcript of the time of Edward IV., we find a 
receipt for food for that favourite bird of the mediaeval poets, the night- 
ingale.* Small animals of various kinds were alio tamed and kept in the 
houfe, either loofe or in cages. The plot of fome of the earlier fabliaux 
turns upon the practice of taming fquirrels as pets, and keeping them in 
cages ; and this animal continued long to be an efpecial favourite, for its 
livelinefs and activity. In one of the compartments of the curious 
tapeftry of Nancy, of the fifteenth century, which has been engraved by 



* This receipt is curious enough to be given here; it is as follows ; — " Fyrst, 
take and geve hyin yelow antes, otherwyse called pysmerys, as nere as ye may, and 
the white ante or pysmers egges be best bothe wynter and somer, ij. tymes of the 
day an handful of bothe. Also, geve hym of these sowes that crepe with many 
fete, and falle oute of howce rovys. Also, geve hym whyte wormes that breede 
betwene the barke and the tre." — Reliquiae Antiquas, vol. i. p. 203. 

3 d M. Achille 



386 Hiftory of Domejlic Manners 

M. Achille Jubinal, we fee a lady with a tame fquirrel in her hand, 
which fhe holds by a firing, as reprefented in our cut No. 252. 

The parlour was now the room where the domeftic amufements were 
introduced. The gueft in the early trad on " Dyce Play," quoted in a 
former page, tells us, " and, after the table was removed, in came 
one of the waiters with a fair filver bowl, full of dice and cards. Now, 
matters, quoth the goodman, who is fo difpofed, fall too." Gambling 
was carried to a great height during the 
fifteenth century, and was feverely con- 
demned by the moralifts,. but without much 
fuccefs. Dice were the older implements of 
play, and tables (or backgammon). A religious 
poem on faints' days, in a manufcript written 
about the year 1460, warning againft idle 
amufements, fays — 

Alfo ufe not to pley at the dice ne at the tablis, 
Ne none maner gamys, uppon the holida'u ; 
Ufe no tavernys ivhere be jejlis and jab lis, 
Syngyng of leivde ba/ettes, rondekttes, or -virolais. 
I ^f / 

After the middle of the fifteenth century, 

No. 252. Lady and Squirrel. . . , , - , , ,, 

• cards came into very general uie ; and at the 

beginning of the following century, there was fuch a rage for card- 
playing, that an attempt was made early in the reign of Henry VIII. to 
reftricl their ufe by law to the period of Chrifimas. When, however, 
people fat down to dinner at noon, and had no other occupation for the 
reft of the day, they needed amufement of fome fort to pafs the time ; 
and a poet of the fifteenth century obferves truly, — 

A man may dryfe for the the day that long tyme divellis 
With harpy ng and pipyng, and other mery Jpellis, 
With gle, and 'ivyth game. 

Such amufements as thefe mentioned, with games of different kinds in 
which the ladies took part, and dancing, generally occupied the afternoon, 
from dinner to fupper, the hour of which latter meal feems ufually to 

have 




and Sentiments. 



337 



have been fix o'clock. The favourite amufement was dancing. A family 
party at the dance is reprefented in our cut No. 253, from M. Barrens' 
manufcript of the " Comte d'Artois." The numerous dances which were 
now in vogue feem to have completely eclipfed the old carole, or round 
dance, and the latter word, which was a more general one, had difplaced 




No. 253. A Dance. 

the former. The couple here on their legs are fuppofed to be performing 
one of the new and tafteful fafhionable dances, which were much more 
lively than thofe of the earlier period ; fome of them were fo much fo as 
to fcandalife greatly the fage moralifts of the time. The after-dinner 
amufements were refumed after fupper ; and a practice had now efta- 
blilhed itfelf of prolonging the day's enjoyment to a late hour, and taking 
a fecond, or, as it was called, a rere-fupper (arricre fouper), which was 
called the banquet in France, where the three great meals were now the 
dinner, the fupper, and the banquet, and dinner appears to have been 
confidered as the leafl meal of the three. It was thus, probably, that, 
in courfe of time, dinner took the place of fupper, and fupper that ot 
banquet. 

We have a very curious illustration of the extravagant living at table 
of the latter half of the fifteenth century, in the curious allegorical 
tapeftry long preferved at Nancy, in Lorrain, and faid by tradition, probably 

with 



2 8 8 Hijiory of Domeflic Manner \r 

with truth, to have been the ornament of the tent of Charles le Teme- 
raire, duke of Burgundy, when he laid fiege to Nancy in 1477, and was 
defeated and ilain. It is of Flemiih workmanfhip, and no doubt pictures 
the manners of the Burgundian nobles and gentry, but at that time the 
court of Burgundy was the model of the faihionable life of weftern 
Europe. It happens, curioufly enough, that a few years later a rather 
obfcure French writer, named Nicole de La Chefnaye, compiling one of 
thofe allegorical dramas then fo popular under the title of " Moralities," 
took the ftory of this tapeftry as his fubjecL and has thus left us the full 
explanation of what might otherwife have been not eafny underftood. 
The title of this morality is " La Nef de Sante" (the ihip of health), and 
a fecond title is "La condamnacion des bancquetz" (the condemnation 
of banquets) ; and its objecf is to fhow the unhappy confequences of the 
extravagance in eating and drinking, which then prevailed. It opens 
with a converfation between three allegorical perfonages named Dinner, 
Supper, and Banquet, who declare their intention to lead joyous life 
evening and morning, and they refolve on imitating Paffe-Temps (paftime) 
and Bonne-Compagnie (good company). At this moment Bonne- 
Compagnie herfelf, who is defcribed as a dafhing damfel (gorriere 
damoifelle), enters with all her people, namely, Gourmandize (greedinefs), 
Friandize (daintinefs), PafTe-Temps, already mentioned, Je-Boy-a-Vous 
(I drink to you), Je-Pleige-d'Autant (I pledge the fame), and Acouftu- 
mance (cuftom). Each names what he prefers in good cheer, and Bonne- 
Compagnie, to begin the day, orders a collation, at which, among other 
things, are ferved damfons {prunes de Damas), which appear at this time 
to have been considered as delicacies. There is here a marginal direction 
to the purport that, if the morality mould be performed in the feafon 
when real damfons could not be had, the performers muft have fome 
made of wax to look like real ones. They now take their places at table, 
and, while they are eating, Je-Boy-a-Vous calls the attention of the com- 
pany to the circumftance that Gourmandize, in his hafte to eat the 
damfons, had fwallowed a fnail. Paffe-Temps next propofes a dance, and 
choofes for his partner the lady Friandize, comparing her to Helen, and 
telling her that he was Paris. She, in reply, compares herfelf to Medea, 

and 



and Sentiments. 



389 



and her partner to Jafon. Then the muficians, "placed on a ftage or 
fome higher place," are to play a meafure " pretty fhort." Dinner, 
Supper, and Banquet next make their appearance, and, addreffing Bonne- 
Compagnie, make their apology for entering without being invited ; but 
the lady receives them well, alks their names, and, in return, tells them 
thofe of her people. Dinner, to ihow his gratitude for this friendly 
reception, invites the whole party to go to his feaft, which is juft ready ; 



m 



\ m 



«PP" r&L bonqnst 



— ■ — f-^> WUftevmnt ~| 




No. 254. A Dinner Party in grand ceremony. 



and Supper invites them to a fecond repaft, and Banquet to a third. 
They accept the invitation of Dinner, and are ferved with friture, brouet, 
potage, gros pales, &c. Meanwhile Supper and Banquet look upon the 
party from "fome high window," and converfe on the confequences 

likely 



39° Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

likely to follow their exceffes. This fcene is reprefented in the firfl com- 
partment of the tapeftry, as it now exifts (for it has undergone consider- 
able mutilation), and is reprefented in our cut No. 254. It is a good 
picture of a feignorial repaft of the fifteenth century. There are people 
at table, betides thofe enumerated in the morality, who are here indicated 
by their names : Paffe-Temps at one end of the table, a lady to his left, 
and after her Je-Boy-a-Vous, who has Bonne-Compagnie by his fide, and 
to her left Dinner, the hoft. To the right of Paife-Temps fits the lady 
Gourmandize, and to her right Je-Vous-Pleige (I pledge you), and next 
to him Friandize. The cups in which they are drinking are flat-fhaped, 
and appear, by the colours in the original, to be of glafs, with the brims, 
and other parts in fome, gilt. The minftrels, in the gallery, are playing 
with trumpets. Among the attendants, we fee the court fool, with his 
bauble, who had now become an ordinary, and almoft a necefiary, per- 
fonage in the houfehold of the rich ; it was the refult of an increafing 
tafte for the coarfe buffoonery which characterifed an unrefined fiate of 
fociety. The court fool was licenfed to utter with impunity whatever 
came to his thought, however mordant or however indecent. Befide 
him are two valets with dogs, which appear to have been ufually admitted 
to the hall, and to have eaten the refufe on the fpot. A window above 
gives us a view of the country, with buildings in the diftance, and Supper 
and Banquet looking in upon the company. An infcription in the upper 
corner to the right tells us how thefe two perfonages came flyly to look 
at the affembly, and how through envy they confpired to take vengeance 
upon the feaflers — 

Soupper et Bancquet 
Vindrent Vajfemblie advifer, 
Dont par en<vk preflement 
Compindrent de iriengetice ufer. 

The morality next introduces the Difeafes who are to be the executors 
of the vengeance of Supper and Banquet, and who, according to the 
ftage directions, are to be dreffed "very ftrangely, fo that you would 
hardly know whether they are women or men." Thefe are Apoplexy, 
Paralyfis, Pleurify, Cholic, Quinfy, Dropfy, Jaundice, Gravel, and Gout. 
At the end of this fcene, Supper and Banquet addrefs themfelves to thefe 

people 



and Sentiments. 391 



people, and afk them to undertake an affault on Bonne-Compagnie and 
the other guefts of Dinner; and they confent at once, and Supper places 
them in an ambufcade in his dwelling. Meanwhile the feaft ends, and 
Bonne-Compagnie fays grace, and orders the player on the lute to 
perform his duty, whereupon " the inftrument founds, and the three men 
lhali lead out the three women, and mall dance whatever dance they 
pleafe, while Bonne-Compagnie remains feated." Supper and Banquet 
then prefent themfelves in turn to invite Bonne-Compagnie and her 
people, and they go firft to Supper, who receives them with extraordinary 
hofpitality. But Supper was a wicked traitor 3 and the ftage directions 
inform us that, while the guefts were enjoying themfelves, his agents, the 
Difeafes, were to be introduced watching them through a window. As 
foon as the fubftantial viands are eaten, Supper goes to order what was 
called the iffhe, or deffert ; and in his abfence Bonne-Compagnie orders 
the minftrels to play an air, and they obey. While the deifert is pre- 
paring, Supper goes to the Difeafes, to aik if they are ready, and they arm 
and attack the guefts, overthrowing tables and benches, and treating 
everybody with great cruelty. After fome other fcenes, Banquet comes 
to announce that his feaft is ready, condoles with the furferers on the 
treatment they had received from Supper, though he is meditating (till 
greater treachery himfelf, and they go and feaft with him. The Difeafes, 
ready at his command, make a much more fatal attack upon the guefts. 

Banquet's feaft forms the fecond compartment of the tapeftry of 
Nancy in its prefent ftate, and is reprefented in our cut No. 255. When 
compared with the morality, it prefents fome variations. In front, 
Banquet is ftanding before the table, oppoiite to Je-Boy-a-Vous and 
Je-Pleige-d'Autant, and appears to be replying to Bonne-Compagnie, 
who is feated between Pafle-Temps and Acouftumance. Further to tin- 
left Banquet appears again, with his hand on his fword, addrefling (he 
Difeafes, who are at the entrance of the hall, waiting for his fignal for 
the attack. At the lower corner on the left we fee Supper, talking with 
another important perfoliate, probably intended to rcprelent Dinner. 
Above, to the right, through a window, we fee Banquet again, with one 
of his attendants fattening (in his armour, while another holds his cafque, 

u hich 



39- 



Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 




and Sentiments. 393 



which he has not yet placed on his head. The firfi of the infcriptions in 
this compartment of the tapeftry, which is on the left, tells how, while 
the guefts are feafiing in all jollity, Banquet and his rout arm and come 
to llaughter the whole afiembly — 

Chiere ilz tyrent joyeulfement, 
T ejtant Bancquet et la route 
Qui f armerent et la proprement 

Occirent VaJJhnblce toute. 

The fecond infcription confifts of eight lines moralizing on the final ruin 
which often falls on thofe who make enjoyment the bufinefs of their 
lives : — 

Les troisfiol-z out grant -volenti 
De cherche\r~\ leur malle mejehance ,• 
Quant on a bun ris et chante', 
A la fin fault tourner la chance. 
Ha ! -vous -vellcz avoir plaifance ! 
Bien Ventre vous ung tandis ; 
Ales gens quy prencnt leur aifertce, 
En fin fe trewvent plus mauldi%. 

It is remarkable that thefe eight lines, taken from the tapeftry, are intro- 
duced into the morality, and placed in the mouth of the fool at the end 
of the firft fcene. 

It will be remarked at once that there is a much greater difplay of 
luxury in the banquet fcene than in the dinner fcene. Upon the table 
are two peacocks, each with a ihield hung to its neck, no doubt to fhow 
the armorial bearings of the hoft; a boar's head, drefled in the molt 
fafhionable manner; a fubtelty, reprefenting a lhip filled with birds, 
furrounded by a fea full of fifties, and having a tall mail, with a fail made 
of filk and ermine, and furmounted by a figure of a naked female, 
intended probably to reprefent the goddefs Venus. There are alio on 
the table four candles, of coloured wax. A noble drefier (lands againfi 
the wall, covered with velfels of gold and of glafs, but the metal far 
predominates. The minftrels are Handing apparently on the floor on a 
level with the guefts, and conlift of a man playing on the cittern, or 
lute, a harper, and one who plays on the pipe and drum, the latter 

3 e inftrumenl 



394 Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 

inftrument a fubftitute for the tabor. The valets with the dogs are again 
introduced, but we raifs the court fool. 

The remaining portions of the tapeftry reprefent the attack of the 
Difeafes, and the great havoc they made among the guefts. 

The banquet was known in England by that name, as well as by the 
name of rere-fupper. In the curious Englifh morality play, entitled 
"The Interlude of the Four Elements," printed early in the fixteenth 
century, the fame diftinclion is made between the three meals as in the 
French morality defcribed above. Senfual-appetite, one of the characters 
in the piece, leads Humanity to the tavern to dine, and orders a dinner 
of three courfes, with a choice variety of wines. As they are leaving 
after dinner, the taverner reminds them that they were to return to 
fupperj and then Humanity propofes a cup of "new" wine, as though 
wine was then valued for being new. Food and liquor were formerly 
adulterated in more dilhonefl: manner even than in modern times, and 
the taverner anfwers the demand jokingly — 

Tfe [hall have ivyne as neive as can he, 
For I may tell you in pryvyte 
Hit was brued but yefler nyght. 

But he immediately adds — 

But than I have for your apetyte 
A cup of ivyne of olde claret ; 
There is no better, by this lyght. 

After fupper they go to dance, and meanwhile Senfual-appetite goes 
to prepare the banquet : — 

IJhall at the toivne agayne 

Prepare for you a banket, 

Ofmetys that be moft delycate, 

And moft pleafaunt drynkes and ivynes therate, 

That is pojjyble to get. 

Which fball be in a chamber fey re 

Prcparyd poynt dcvyfe (in perfection), 

With damajke water made Jo well 

That all the hoivfe thereof Jhall fmell 

As it ivere Paradyfe. 

In 



and Sentiments. 



395 



In "Acolaflus," a work by the grammarian Palfgrave, publiihed in 
1540, the banquet is ftill identified with the rere-fupper, when he fpeaks 
of " the rere-fupper, or banket, where men fyt downe to drynke and 
eate agayne after their meate." And again, ftill later, Higins, in his 
" Nomenclator," publifhed in 1585, explains the Latin word pocaenium 
by "a reare-fupper, or a banket after fupper." The term rere-fupper 
was in ufe throughout the fifteenth century. An Englith vocabulary of 
that century fpeaks of a meal between dinner and fupper, under the 
name of "a myd-dyner under-mete," the fame which, no doubt, was 
called by a French word, a bever, as confifting efpecially in taking a drink, 
and which, removed to the time between breakfaft and dinner, is now 
called a luncheon. 

In the introduction to Lydgate's "Story of Thebes," which is intro- 
duced as a continuation of the "Canterbury Tales," the poet pretends to 
have arrived at the inn in Canterbury when it was occupied by the 
pilgrims, who invite him to flip with them, and he joins their company. 
" Our hoft," who is the leader of the pilgrims, offers him his place at their 
fupper heartily : 

Praying you (he says) to Juppe tuith us this night, 
And ye fhall have made, at your de-vis, 
A great pudding, or a round hagis, 
A French moile, a tanfie, or afroife. 

Thefe appear to have been the ufual favourite difhes at an ordinary 
fupper of this date (the firft half of the fifteenth century). The hagis 
appears to have been much the fame dim as the Scottifh haggis of the 
prefent day. The moile was a dim made of marrow and grated bread. 
The tanfie was a kind of omelet, refembling apparently what the French 
now call an omelette aux fines herles ; while the froife had (mall ftrips of 
bacon in it — an omelette au lard. This latter was a very favourite diih 
among the monks. After fupper, the guefts, or at leaft fome of them, 
are reprefented as taking "ftrong nottie ale" before going to bed. They 
rife early, "anon as it is day," and flart on their return towards 
London ; and they take no meal before dinner, having it 



Fully in purpoje to come to dinere 

Unto OJpring, and brcake there our f aft. 

There 



396 Hijiory of Dome Jit c Manners 

There is a longer preface to the fupplementary tale of "Beryn," 
written about the fame date as the "Story of Thebes," and printed in 
the edition of Chaucer's works by Urry, in which the divisions of the day 
are tolerably well defcribed. The pilgrims there arrived at their defti- 
nation in Canterbury "at mydmorowe," which is interpreted in the 
gloffaries as meaning nine o'clock in the forenoon, and then took their 
lodgings, "ordeyned" their dinner, and, while it was preparing, went to 
make their offerings to the fhrine of St. Thomas in the cathedral church. 
Meanwhile the Pardoner had feparated from the company, and engaged 
in a low intrigue with the " tapfter," or barmaid, who offers him a drink, 
but he tells her he had not yet broken his faft — we are to conclude that 
this was the cafe with the reft of the company — and 

She ft 'art into the town, and fet a py al hote. 

Meat pies appear to have been very common articles of food in the 
middle ages, and to have been kept always ready at the cooks' lhops. 
The offering feems to have taken but a fmall fpace of time, and then — 

They Jet their fignys upon their kede-, andjom oppon their capp, 
Andfith to the dyner-iuard they gan for to ftapp (step) ; 
E-very man in his degre nvifjb (washed) and toke his fete, 
As they iver ivont to doon at foper and at mete ; 
And iver in Jilence for a tyme, tyl good ale gan arife. 

It appears, therefore, that people did not hold converfation while eating, 
but that the talk and mirth began with the liquor, whether ale or wine. 
It was then agreed that they fhould remain that day in Canterbury, and 
all fup together at night — 

" Then al this after-mete I hold it for the bejl 

To J port and pley us," quod the hoof, " ech man as hym left (likes), 

And go by tyme to foper, and to bed alfo, 

So moive ive erly ryfen, our jorney for to do. 

Accordingly they all walk forth into the city, where the knight, who with 
his fon had put on frelh gowns, took the latter to the town walls to 
explain to him their ftrength, and the character of the defences ; and as 
many of the reft as had changes of apparel with them imitated their 

example, 



and Sentiments. 397 



example, and they feparated in parties, according to their different 
taftes. The monk, the paribn, and the friar, went to vifit fome clerical 
acquaintance, and indulged in fpiced wine. The ladies remained at 
home : — 

The wyfe of Bath wasfo wcry, /he had no Wyl to tualk ; 

She toke the prior es by the honde, "Madam, ivol ye ftalk 

Pryvely into the garden to fe the herbh growe ? 

And after with our hoftis wife in her parlour rowe (talk) ? 

I ivol gyve y owe the wyne, and ye /hul me alfo ; 

For tyl we go to foper we have naught ellis to do.'''' 

The priorefs affents to this propofal — 

and forth gon they wend, 

PaJJtng forth fofftly into the herbery ; 

For many a herb grew for Jew e (pottage) and forgery ; 

And all the a leys fair and par id, and ray lid, and ymakid ; 

The Jauge and the ifope yfrethid and iftahid ; 

And othir beddis by and by frefh ydight, 

For comers to the hoofte right a f port ful fight . 

When the guefts reaffembled, they agreed that the knight lliould be 
their "marihall" of the table., and he ordered them all to wafh, and then 
appointed them to their feats, that they might be properly feated together, 
for this was part of his duty. They thus fat two and two, each couple, 
no doubt, at one dilli — 

They wiffh (washed), and fett right as he bad, eche man wyth his fere, 

And begonne to talk of fportis and of chere 

That they had the aftir-mete whiles they wer out ; 

For othir occupacioune, tyl! they wer fervid about, 

They had not at that tyme, but eny man kitt (cut) a loff. 

Thus it would appear that nothing eatable was as yet placed on the table 
but bread. Prefently, the fupper was ferved round to them, of which 
there was only one " fervice," out of courtefy on the part of the rich 
members of the company towards tholl- who were poor, as there was to 
be an equal divilion of the expenfes of the fupper. In return, the Uighefl 
places of the table were yielded to the perfons of belt eftate, and thefe, 
as an acknowledgment, gave a cup of wine round at their own expenfe, 

and 



398 Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 

and then left the table to retire to their beds. But the lefs genteel of 
the company, the miller and the cook, with the fompnour, the yeoman, 
the reeve, and the manciple, remained "drinking by the moon," — that 
is, they had no candle. There was, however, one candle in the bedroom, 
which feems to have ferved to light the whole company, — for it is evident 
that they all llept in beds in one room, — and this candle was only put out 
when they were all gone to bed, which was the moment the Pardoner 
awaited to ileal away and purfue his intrigue. Next morning they were 
out of their beds fo early that they left the town on their homeward 
journey at funrife. 



a?id Sentiments. 399 



CHAPTER XIX, 

THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE AND USES. BEDS. HUTCHES AND 

COFFERS. THE TOILETTE ; MIRRORS. 

THE chambers were now, except in fmaller boufes, moftly above the 
ground-floor ; and, as I have already obferved, the privacy of the 
chamber was much greater than formerly. In the poem of " Lady 
Beffy," quoted in a former chapter (the whole poem is given in Mr. 
Halliwell's privately printed "Palatine Anthology"), when the earl of 
Derby was plotting with the lady Beffy for calling in the earl of Richmond, 
he propofed to repair fecretly to her in her chamber, in order to prepare 
the letters : — 

" We mufl depart (separate), lady" the earle /aid then ; 

" Wherefore keep this matter fecretly, 
And this fame night, betivix nine and ten, 

In your chamber I think to be. 
Look that you make all things ready, 

Your maids [hall not our councell hear, 
For I ivill bring no man ivith me 

But Humphrey Brereton, my true cfquire. ' * 
He took his lea-ve of that lady fair, 

And to her chamber fhe ivcnt full light, 
And for all things fhe did prepare, 

Both pen and ink, and paper white. 



The earl, on his part, — 



unto his fludy ivcnt, 

Forecafling ivith all his might 
To bring to pafs all his intent ; 

He took no reft till it ivas night, 
And when the Jlars /hone fair and bright, 
He him difguifid in flrange mannere ; 

lh- 



4-oo 



Hiftory of Dome/} ic Manners 



He went unknown of any wight, 

No more with him but his efquire. 
And ivhen he came her chamber near. 

Full privily there can he fland; 
To caufe the lady to appear e 

He made ajign with his right hand. 
And when the lady there him wift, 

She was as glad as foe might be ; 
Charcoals in chimneys there were cafl, 

Candles on flicks fianding full high. 
She opened the wickett, and let him in, 

And f aid, " Welcome, lord and knight foe free . 
A rich chair was fet for him, 

And another for that fair lady ; 
They ate the f pice, and drank the wine, 

He had all things at his intent. 



The defcription given in thefe lines agrees perfectly with the repre- 
fentations of chambers in the illuminated manufcripts of the latter part 




No. 256. In, 



of the Chamber. 



of the fifteenth century, when the fuperior artiftic fkill of the illuminators 

enabled 



and Sentiments. 



40: 



enabled them to draw interiors with more of detail than in former periods. 
We have almoft invariably the chimney, and one "rich chair," if not 
more. In our cut No. 256, we have a fettle in the chamber, which is 
turned to the fire. This picture is taken from a manufeript of the early 
French tranilation of Jofephus, in the National Library in Paris i N 1 1. 
7015), and reprefents the death of the emperor Nero, as defcribed by that 
writer. All the furniture of this chamber is of a fuperior defcription. 



,-=i-0 .*=£0 /*■<£> 



■rnvmrsf. 




No. 257. The Nurfing Chamber. 

The large chair by the bed-fide is of very elegant delign ; and the fettle, 
which is open at the back, is ornamented with carved panels. Our aexl 
cut (No. 257), taken from a manufeript of Lydgate's metrical Life of 
St. Edmund (MS. Harl. No. 2278), reprefents the birth of that faint. 

3 F This 



A.Q2 



Hiftory of ' Domefiic Manners 



This room is more elaborately furnifhed than the former. The fittings 
of the bed are richer 3 the chimney is more ornamental in its character, 
and is curious as having three little receffes for holding candlefticks, cups, 
and other articles ; and we have a well-fupplied cupboard, though of 
fimple form. From the colours in the manufcript, all the veffels appear 
to be of gold, or of filver-gilt. The feat before the fire in this cut 
(No. 257) feems to be the hutch, or cheft, which in Nos. 261 and 262 
we ihall fee placed at the foot of the bed, from which it is here moved to 
ferve the occafion. 

The lady feated on this cheft appears to be wrapping up the new-born 
infant in fwaddling-clothes ; a cuftom which, as I have remarked on a 
former occafion, and as we ihall fee again further on, prevailed univerfally 
till a comparatively recent period. Infants thus wrapped up are fre- 
quently feen in the illuminated manufcriptsj and their appearance is 
certainly anything but picfurefque. We have an exception in one of the 




No. 258. A Cradle. 



fculptures on the columns of the Hotel de Ville at Bruffels (reprefented 
in our cut No. 258), which alfo furnifhes us with a curious example of a 
cradle of the latter part of the fifteenth century. 

It will, no doubt, have been remarked that in thefe cuts we obferve 
no traces of carpets on the floor. In our cut No. 256, the floor is evidently 
boarded 5 but more generally, as in our cuts Nos. 257, 260, and 261, it 

appears 



and Sentiments. 403 



appears chequered, or laid out in fmall fquares, which may be intended to 
reprefent tiles, or perhaps parquetry. There is more evidence of tapeftried 
or painted walls ; although this kind of ornamentation is only ufed 
partially, and chiefly in the dwellings of the richer clalfes. The walls 
in the chamber in cut No. 257 appear to be painted. In the fame cut 
we have an example of an ornamental mat. 

The moft important article of furniture in the chamber was the bed, 
which began now to be made much more ornamental than in previous 
times. We have feen in the former period the introduction of the canopy 
and its curtains, under which the head of the bed was placed. The 
celure, or roof, of the canopy, was now often enlarged, fo as to extend 
over the whole bed ; and it, as well as the tefter, or back, was often 
adorned with the arms of the pofleflbr, with religious emblems, with 
flowers, or with fome other ornament. There were alfo fometimes coffers, 
or ornamental cloths for the fides of the bed. The curtains, fometimes 
called by the French word ridels, were attached edgeways to the teller, 
and were fufpended fometimes by rings, fo as to draw backwards and 
forwards along a pole 5 but more frequently, to judge by the illuminations, 
they were fixed to the celure |n the fame manner as to the tefter, and 
were drawn up with cords. At the two corners of the celure portions of 
curtain were left hanging down like bags. The curtains which draw up 
are reprefented in our cuts Nos. 259 and 260. Thole in cuts Nos. 261 
and 262, if not in Nos. 256 and 257, are evidently drawn along poles 
with rings. The latter method is thus alluded to in the old metrical 
romance of " Sir Degrevant :" — 

That was a mer-velle thyngc, 

To jc the riddels hynge, 
With many red golde rynge 
That thame up bare. 

The celure and tefter were fixed to the wall and ceiling of the apart- 
ment, and were not in any way attached to the bed itfelf ; for the large 
fcur-poft bedfteads were introduced in the fixteenth century. In fome 
illuminations the bed is feen placed within a fquare compartment fepa- 
ratcd from the room by curtains which feem to be fufpended from the 

roof. 



4 04 



Hiftory of "Domefitc Manners 



roof. This appears to have been the hrft ftep towards the more modern 
four-pott bedfteads. In one of the plates to D'Agincourt's " Hiftoire de 
l'Art" (Peinture, pi. 109), taken from a Greek frefco of the twelfth or 
thirteenth century in a church at Florence, we have the curtains arranged 
thus in a fquare tent in the room, where the cords are not fufpended 
from the roof, but fupported by four corner-pofts. The bed is placed 
within, totally detached from the furrounding pofts and curtains. The 
fpace thus left between the bed and the curtains was perhaps what was 
originally called in French the ruelle (literally, the "little flreet") of the 
bed, a term which was afterwards given to the fpace between the curtains 
of the bed and the wall, which held rather an important place in old 
French chamber life, and efpecially in the flories of chamber intrigue. 

The bedhead itfelf was Hill a very fimple itru6ture of wood, as fhown 
in our cut No. 2^9, which reprefents the bed of a countefs. It is taken 




No. 259. A Bed of the Fifteenth Century. 

from the manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d'Artois," which has 
already furnifhed mbjefits for our previous chapters on the manners of the 
fifteenth century. The lady's footftool is no lefs rude than the bedftead. 
The bed here evidently confifls of a hard mattrefs. It was ftill often 
made of ftraw, and the bed is fpoken of in the gloffaries as placed upon a 

Jiramentum, 



and Sentiments. 405 



firamcntum, which is interpreted by the Engliih word " litter ;" but 
feather-beds were certainly in general ufe during the whole of the 
fifteenth century. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, Chaucer 
(Dreme, v. 250) thus defcribed a very rich bed : — 

Of doiune of pure dcvis -white 

I "wol ye-ve him a fethir bed, 

Rayid -with gold, and right ivell cled 

In fine blacke fat tin d^outremere, 

And many a piloiue, and e-very bere (pillow cover) 

Of clothe of Raines to Jlepe on fofte ; 

Him thare (need) not to turnen ofte. 

Agnes Hubbard, a lady of Bury, in Suffolk, who made her will in 141 8, 
left among other things, "one feather-bed" (unum leSium de plumis). 
A rich townfman of the fame place bequeathed, in 1463, to his niece, 
" certeyne ftuffe of oftilment," among which he enumerates "my grene 
hanggyd bedde fteynyd with my armys therin, that hanggith in the 
chambyr ovir kechene, with the curtynez, the grene keveryng longgyng 
therto ; another coverlyte, ij. blanketts, ij. peyre of good ihetes, the 
trampfoun, the cofierys of that chambyr and of the drawgth chambyr 
next, tho that be of the fame foort, a grete pilve (pillow) and a final 
pilve 5 the fethirbeed is hire owne that hire maiftreffe gaf hire at London." 
After enumerating other articles of different kinds, the teftator proceeds — 
"And I geve hire the felour and the fteynyd clooth of the coronacion of 
Our Lady, with the clothes of myn that long to the bedde that fhe hath 
loyen (lain) in, and the beddyng in the draught chamber for hire fer- 
vaunth to lyn in ; and a banker of grene and red lying in hire chambyr 
with the longe chayer (a fettle, probably) ; and a ftondyng coffre and a 
long coffre in the drawth chambyr." William Honyboorn, alio of Bury, 
bequeathed to his wife in 149.3, " my beft ffether bedde with the traun- 
fome, a whyte felour and a teftour theron, with iij. white curteyns therto, 
a coverlight white and blewe lyeng on the fame bedde, with the blan- 
kettes." The fame man leaves to his daughter, "a ffether bedde oext 
the beft, a materas lyeng under the lame, iiij. peyr lhetys, iij. pelowes, a 
peyr blankettes." John Coote, who made his will at Bury in 1,02, left 
to his wife, for term of her life, " alle my plate, bralfe, pewter, hangg 

celers, 



406 Hi (lory of Domefiic Manners 

celers, tefters, fetherbeddes, traunfoms, coverlytes, blankettes, fhetes, 
pelows, and all other Huff of huflbld (houfehold) ■" and afterwards be- 
queaths thefe articles feparately to his fon and daughter, after their 
mother's death : — " I will that William Coote have my befte hanged 
bede, celer, teftor, and curteyns longgyng to the fame, the befte fether- 
bede, the befte coverlyght, the befte peyer of blankettes, the befte peyer 
ihetes ; and Alys Coote to have the next hanged bede, celer, and teftour, 
wyth the ij de fetherbede, blankettes, and the ij de peyer fhetes." In the 
will of Anne Barett, of Bury, dated in 1504, we read, " Item, I bequeth 
to Avyfe my fervaunte x. marc, a ffether bed, a traunfom, a payre ihetes, 
a payre blankettes, a coverlyght." Laftly, the will of Agar Herte, a 
widow of the fame town, made in 1^22, contains the following items : — - 
" Item, I bequethe to Richard Jaxfon, my fon, a ffetherbed, ij. trawnfoms, 
a matras, ij. pelowes, iiij. payer of fchetes, a payer of blankettes, and a 
coveryng of araffe, and a fecunde coverlyght, a felour and a teftour fteynyd 
with fflowers, and iij. curteyns ;"..." Item, I bequethe to Jone Jaxfon, 
my dowghter, a fetherbed, a matras, a bolfter, ij. pelowes, iiij. payer of 
fchetes, a payer of blankettes, a coverlyght with fflowre de lyce, a felour 
and a teftour fteynyd with Seynt Kateryn at the hed and the crufifix on 
the felour, ... a fecunde coverlyght, ij. pelow-beris {pillow-covers), the 
fteynyd clothes abowte the chamber where I ly 5" . . . " Item, I bequethe 
to Fraunces Wrethe a rfetherbed, a bolfter, a payer of blankettes, my beft 
carpet, a new coverlyght with fflowers, ij. payer of fchetes, ij. pelows with 
the berys." 

Thefe extracts from only one fet of wills are fufficient to mow the 
great advance which our forefathers had made during the fourteenth 
century in the comfort and richnefs of their beds, and how cautious we 
ought to be in receiving general obfervations on the condition of previous 
ages by thofe who write at a fubfequent period. I make this obfervation 
in allufion to the account fo often quoted from Harrifon, who, in the 
defcription of England written in Eflex during the reign of Elizabeth, 
and inferted in Holinfhed's "Chronicles," informs us that "our fathers 
(yea, and we our felves alfo) have lien full oft upon ftraw pallets, on 
rough mats, covered onelie with a flieet, under coverlets made of dag- 

fwain, 



and Sentiments. 



407 



fwain,* or hopharlots (I ufe their owne termes), and a good round log 
under their heads inftead of a bolder. If it were fo that our fathers, or 
the good-man of the houfe, had, within feven years after his manage, 
purchafed a matteres, or flocke bed, and thereto a facke of chaffe to rede 
his heade upon, he thought himfelfe to be as well lodged as the lord of 
the towne, lb well were they contented. Pillowes, laid they, were 
thought meete onelie for women in child-bed. As for tenants, if they 
had anie fheet above them it was well, for feldom had they anie under 
their bodies to keepe them from the pricking draws that ran oft through 
the canvas of the pallet, and rafed their hardened hides." A defcription 
like this could only apply to the lower clalTes in fociety, who had as yet 
participated but little in the march of focial improvement. 

As the privacy of the chamber had become greater, it feems now to 
have been much lefs common in private manfions for leveral people to ileep 




No. 260. A Truckle-bed. 

in the fame room, which appears more rarely to have had more than one 



* Dagswain was a sort of rough material of which the commoner sort of cover- 
lets were made. A hap-harlot or hop-harlot, was also a very coarse kind of 
coverlet. Harlot was the term applied to a low class of vagabonds, the ribalds, 
who wandered from place to place in search of a living; and the name appears to 
have been given to this rug as being only fit to be the lot or hap of such people. 



bed. 



40 8 Hi/lory of Domejiic Manners 

bed. But a bed of a new conftrucfion had now come into ufe, called a 
truckle or trundle bed. This was a fmaller bed which rolled under the 
larger bed, and was defigned ufually for a valet, or fervant. The illu- 
minations in the manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d'Artois," 
already quoted more than once, furnifh us with the early example of a 
truckle-bed reprefented in our cut No. 260. The count d'Artois lies in 
the bed under the canopy, while the truckle-bed is occupied by his valet 
(in this cafe, his wife in difguife). The truckle-bed is more frequently 
mentioned in the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries. Every reader will 
remember the fpeech of mine holt of the Garter, in the "Merry Wives 
of Windfor" (act iv. fc. 5), who fays of Falftaff's room, "There's his 
chamber, his houfe, his caftle, his ftanding bed and truckle-bed." It was 
the place allotted to the fquire, when accompanying the knight on 
" adventures." So in Hudibras (part ii. canto ii.) — 

When Hudibras, whom thoughts and aklng 

1 'Twixt Jleeping kept all night and waking; 

Began to rub his drowfy eyes, 

And from his couch prepared to rife, 

Rejolving to difpatch the deed 

He ww 1 d to do, with trufty fpeed ; 

But frjl, ivith knocking loud and bawling, 

He roufed the fquire, in truckle lolling. 

In the Englifh univerfities, the mafter-of-arts had his pupil to fleep in his 
truckle-bed. 

The chamber, as the moft private part of the houfe, was flored with 
chefts and coffers, in which the perfon who occupied it kept his money, 
his deeds and private papers, and his other valuables. Margaret Pafton, 
writing from Norwich to her huiband about the year 1459; gi yes a curious 
account of the preparations for his reception at home. " I have," fhe 
fays, " taken the meafure in the drawte chamber, there as ye would your 
coffers and your cowntewery (fuppofed to mean a defk for writing) mould 
be fet for the while, and there is no fpace befide the bed, though the bed 
were removed to the door, for to fet both your board (table) and your 
coffers there, and to have fpace to go and fit befide ; wherefore I have 
purveyed that ye fhall have the fame drawte chamber Withdrawing room — 

the 



and Sentiments. 



409 



the origin of our name of drawing-room for the fcdon) that ye had 
before, thereat ye iliall lye to yourfelf 3 and when your gear is removed 
out of your little houfe, the door {hall be locked, and your bags laid in 
one of the great coffers, fo that they Iliall be fate, I trull." The hucches 
(hutches) or chefts, and coffers, in the bed-chamber, are frequently men- 
tioned in old writings. The large hutch feems to have been ufually 
placed at the foot of the bed. In one of our preceding cuts (No. 257) 
we have feen it moved from its place to make a temporary feat before 
the fire. The cut annexed (No. 261), taken from a manufcript Latin 



©©>©©©©© o\ 




No. 261. A Bedroom Scene. 



Bible in the National Library in Paris (No. 6829), Ihows us the hutch 
in its ufual place, and opened fo as to expofe its contents to our view. 
It is here evidently filled with money, and the perfons who have entered 
the chamber feem to be plundering it. In a very popular old dory, the 
fame in fuhftance as that of Macbeth and his daughters, an old man, on 
the marriage of his daughter, weakly gives up all his property t<> the 
young married pair, trufting to their filial love for his fuftenance, and 

3 g they 



41 o H/Jiory of Domefiic Maimers 

they go on treating him worfe and worfe, until he is laved from actual 
deftitution by a deception he praftifes upon them. In one verfion of the 
ftory, given in Englilh verfe in a manufcript of the fifteenth century, the 
father goes to a friend and borrows a large fum of money in gold, which 
he places in his coffer, and, having invited them to his dwelling, and 
perfuaded them to remain all night, he contrives that early in the morning 
they mall, as by accident, efpy him counting his gold. The unfilial 
children, who fuppofed that he had given them all he poffefled, were 
aftoniihed to find him ftill rich, and were induced, by their covetoulhefs, 
to treat him better during the reft of his life. The poem defcribes the 
old man leaving his bed to count the gold in his cheft : — 

But on the morow, at brode daylight, 
The fadir ros, and, for they Ihulden here 
What that he d'ide in a boifous manere, 
Unto his chef, which thre lokkes hadde, 
He ivent, and therat wrethed he fid fadde, 
jind whan it 'zvas opened and unfbit, 
The bagged gold bi the merchaunt hym lent 
He hath untied, and freight forth with it 
Unto his beddis feete gone is and ivent, 
What doth thanne this fel man and prudent 
But out the gold on a tapit hath /hot, 
That in the bagges left ther no grot. — MS. Harl. 372, fol. 88, v°. 

Robbers, or plunderers in time of war, when breaking into a houfe, 
always made direct for the chamber. Among the letters of the Pafton 
family, is a paper by a retainer of fir John Faftolf, who had a houfe in 
South wark, giving an account of his fufferings during the attack upon 
London by Jack Cade and the commons of Kent in 1450, in which he 
tells how " the captain (Cade) fent certain of his meny to my chamber 
in your rents, and there broke up my cheft, and took away one obligation 
of mine that was due unto me of 3 61. by a prieft of Paul's and one other 
obligation of one Knight of 10L, and my purfe with five rings of gold, 
and 17*. 6d. of gold and lilver ; and one harnefs (fuit of armour) com- 
plete of the touch of Milan ; and one gown of fine perfe blue, furred 
with martens ; and two gowns, one furred with bogey (budge), and one 
other lined with frieze." One of John Pafton's correfpondents, writing 

from 



and Sentiments. 



4 ti 



from London on the 28th of October, 1455, gives the following (till more 
pertinent account of the robbing of a man's houfe : — " Alfo there is great 
variance between the earl of Devonfhire and the lord Bonvile, as hath 
been many day, and much debate is like to grow thereby ; for on Thurf- 
day at night laft paft, the earl of Devonlhire's fon and heir came, with 
fixty men of arms, to Radford's place in Devonfhire, which (Radford) 
was of counfel with my lord Bonvile; and they fet a houfe on fire at 
Radford's gate, and cried and made a noife as though they had been forry 
for the fire ; and by thet caufe Radford's men fet open the gates and 
yede (went) out to fee the fire ; and forthwith the earl's fon aforefaid 
entered into the place, and entreated Radford to come down of his 
chamber to fpeak with them, promifing him that he fhould no bodily 
harm have ; upon which promife he came down, and fpoke with the faid 
earl's fon. In the mean time his meny (retinue) rob his chamber, and 
rifled his hutches, and truffed fuch as they could get together, and carried 
it away on his own horfes." As foon as this was done, Radford, who was 
an eminent lawyer refiding at Poghill, near Kyrton, and now aged, was 
led forth and brutally murdered. In 
the ftories and novels of the middle 
ages, the favoured lover who has been 
admitted fecretly into the chamber of 
his miftrefs is often concealed in the 
hutch or cheft. 

Our cut No. 262, taken from the 
fame manufcript of the Bible which 
furnifhed our laft illuftration, reprefents 
the hutch alfo in its place at the foot 
of the bed. This lketch is interefiing, 
both as fhowing more diftinttly than 
the others the rings of the bed-curtains, 
and the rods attached to the celure, 
and as a particularly good illuftration of I he habil which Hill continued 
in all clafles and ranks of fociety, of ileeping in bed entirely naked. 
The fame practice is (hown in feveral of our other cuts (fee Nos. l$6, 




A Lady , 



260, 



412 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



260, and 261), and, indeed, in all the illuminated manufcripts of the 
fifteenth century which contain bedroom fcenes. Wherever this is not 
the cafe, there is fome evident reafon for the contrary, as in our cut 
No. 257. During this period we have not fo many pictorial illuftrations 
of the toilet as might be expected. The ladies' combs were generally 
coarfe and large in the teeth, but often very elaborately and beautifully 
ornamented. The mirror was, as at former periods, merely a circular 
piece of metal or glafs, fet in a cafe, which was carved with figures or 
ornaments externally. The vocabularies mention the mirror as one ot 
the ufual obje<5ts with which a chamber fhould be furniihed. 

Our cut No. 263 is taken from a manufcript (MS. Cotton. Tiberius, A. 
vii. fol. 93, r°) of the Englifh tranflation of the lingular work of the 




No. 263. A Dealer in Mercery, 



French writer, Guillaume de Deguilleville, entitled " Le Pelerinage de la 
Vie Humaine," a poem which bears a finking refemblance in its general 
character to the "Pilgrim's Progrefs" of Bunyan. The Englifli verfion, 
which is in verfe, and entitled fimply the " Pilgrim," has been afcribed to 
Lydgate. In the courfe of his adventures, the pilgrim comes to the lady 
Agyographe, who is reprefented a? dealing in " mercerye," but the 
enumeration of articles embraced under that term is rather lingular : — 

Quod 



Sjuodfche, " Geve (if) I Jchal tlte telle, 

Mercery e I have to felle ; 

In boyftes (boxes) foote (sweet) oynementis, 

Therewith to don allegementis (to give relief) 

To ffolkes ivhiche be not glade, 

But difcorded and mallade, 

And hurte ivhh perturlacyouns 

Off many trybulacyouns. 

I have knyves, phylletys, callys, 

At ffeejles to hang upon ivallys ; 

Kombes mo than nyne or ten, 

Bothe ffor horfe and eke ffor men ; 

Merours alfo, large and brode, 

And ffor the fyght ivonder gode ; 

Off hem I have fful greet plente', 

For ffolke that haven volume 

By /wide hemjtlffe therynne." 

Our cut reprefents the interior of the houfe of the lady mercer, with the 
various articles enumerated in the text; the boxes of ointment, the horfe- 
combs, the men's combs, and the mirrors. She firft offers the pilgrim a 
mirror, made fo as to flatter people, by reprefenting them . handfomer 
than they really were, which the pilgrim refules : — 

" Madame,'''' <}uod I, " yotu not difpleefe, 

This myroure Jchal do me noon eefe ; 

Wh.erjo that I leefe or tuynne, 

I ivole nevere looke thereinne.'''' 

But ryght anoon myne happe it ivas 

To loken in another glaffe, 

In the ivhiche ivithoutcn -zvene (without doubt) 

Ifaive myjylff ffuule and uncleene, 

And to byholde ryght hydous, 

Abhomynabel, and vecyous. 

That merour and that glas 

Scheiuyd (showed) to me tuhat I was. 

In the celebrated " Romance of the Role," one of the heroines, Belacueil, 
is introduced, adorning her head with a fillet, and with this head-drefs 
contemplating herfelf in a mirror : — 

Belacueil fouvent fe remirc, 
Dedans Jon miroer fe mire, 
Savoir fil ejlfi bien Jeans. 

There 



4H 



Hiftory of Do?neJlic Manners 



There is a reprefentation of this fcene in the beautiful illuminated manu- 
fcript of the "Romance of the Rofe" in the Britith Mufeum (MS. Harl. 
No. 4425), in which, fingularly enough, the mirror itfelf, which is 
evidently of glafs, is reprefented as being convex, though perhaps we mufi. 
attribute this appearance to the unikilfulnefs of the deiigner, who in his 
attempt to ihow that the mirror was 
round, failed in perfpeftive. In our firft 
cut, from Guillaume de Deguilleville, it 
will be obferved that the artift, in order 
to mow that the articles intended to be 
reprefented are mirrors, and not plates, or 
any other round implements, has drawn 
the reflections of faces, although nobody 
is looking into them. Another pecu- 
liarity in the illumination of the " Ro- 
mance of the Rofe," a portion of which 
is reprefented in our cut No. 264, is that the mirror is fixed againft the 
wall, inftead of being held in the hand when ufed, as appears to have 
been more generally the cafe. Standing-mirrors feem not to have been 
yet in ufe ; but before the end of the fifteenth century, glafs mirrors, 
which appear to have been invented in Belgium or Germany, came 
into ufe. 




No. 264. Lady and Mir, 



and Sentiments. 



4i5 



CHAPTER XX. 

STATE OF SOCIETY. THE FEMALE CHARACTER. GREEDINESS IN EAT- 
ING. CHARACTER OF THE MEDIAEVAL SERVANTS. DAILY OCCUPA- 
TIONS IN THE HOUSEHOLD: SPINNING AND WEAVING; PAINTING. 

THE GARDEN AND ITS USES. GAMES OUT OF DOORS; HAWKING, 

ETC. TRAVELLING, AND MORE FREQUENT USE OF CARRIAGES. 

TAVERNS ; FREQ.UENTED BY WOMEN. EDUCATION AND LITERARY 

OCCUPATIONS 5 SPECTACLES. 

DURING the fifteenth century, fociety in England was going through 
a transition which was lefs viiible on the furface than it was great 
and effectual at the heart. France and England were both torn by 
revolutionary ftruggles, but with very different refults ; for while in 
France the political power of the middle clafles was deftroyed, and the 
country was delivered to the defpotifm of the crown and of the great 
lords, in our country it was the feudal nobility which was ruined, while 
the municipal bodies had obtained an increafed importance in the ffate, 
and the landed gentry gained more independence and power from 
the decline of that of the great feudal barons. Yet in both countries 
feudalifm itfelf, in its real character, was rapidly palling away — in France, 
before the power of the crown 5 in England, before the remodelling and 
reformation of fociety. While the fubftance of feudalifm was thus 
perifliing, its outward forms appeared to be more fought than ever, and 
the pride and oftentalion of rank, and its arrogance too, prevailed during 
the fifteenth century to a greater degree than at any previous period. 
The court of Burgundy, itfelf only in origin a feudal principality, had let 
itfelf up as the model of feudalifm, and there the old romances of 
chivalry were remodelled and published anew, and were read eagerly as 
the mirror of feudal doctrines. The court of Burgundy was remarkable 

for 



41 6 Hiflory of Domeflic Manners 

for its wonderful pomp and magnificence, and for its oftentatious difplay 
of wealth ; it was confidered the model of lordly courtefy and high 
breeding, and was the centre of literature and art ; and circumftances 
had brought the court of England into intimate connection with it, fo 
that the influence of Burgundian falhions was greater during this period 
in England than that of the falhions of the court of France. There can 
be no doubt, too, that the focial character in England and in France were 
now beginning to diverge widely from each other. The condition of the 
lower clafs in France was becoming more and more miferable, and the 
upper claffes were becoming more licentious and immoral ; whereas, in 
England, though ferfdom or villanage Hill exifted in name, and in law, 
the peafantry had been largely enfranchifed, and it was gradually difap- 
pearing as a facf ; and their landlords, the country gentry, lived among 
them in more kindly and more intimate intercourfe, inftead of treating 
them with tyrannical cruelty, and dragging them off to be llaughtered in 
their private wars. Increafed commerce had fpread wealth among the 
middle claffes, and had brought with it, no doubt, a confiderable increafe 
of focial comfort. Social manners were ftill very coarfe, but it is quite 
evident that the efforts of the religious reformers, the Lollards, were 
improving the moral tone of fociety in the middle and lower claffes. 

People had, moreover, begun now to difcufs great focial queflions. 
The example of this had been given in England in the celebrated poem 
of " Piers Ploughman," in the middle of the fourteenth century, and fuch 
queflions were mooted very extenfively by the Lollards, who held as a 
principle the natural equality of man. This was a doctrine which was 
accepted very flowly, and was certainly difcountenanced by the Roman 
Catholic preachers, who encouraged the belief that the divifion of fociety 
into diftinct claffes was a permanent judgment of God, and even invented 
legends to account for its origin. Long after feudalifm had ceafed, it 
was difficult to difabufe people of the opinion that the blood which 
flowed in the veins of a gentleman was of a different kind from that of 
a peafant, or even from that of a burgher. One of the legendary 
explanations of thefe divifions of blood is given by a poetical writer of 
the reign of Henry VII., named Alexander Barclay, who has left us 

feven 



and Sentiments. 4 1 7 



feven "eclogues," as he calls them, on the focial queflions which agitated 
men's minds in his day. One day, according to this ftory, while Adam 
was abfent occupied with his agricultural labours, Eve fat at home on 
their threihold, with all her children about her, when fuddenly fhe 
became aware of the approach of the Creator, and, afhamed of the great 
number of them, and fearful that her produ6tivenefs might be mifinter- 
preted, fhe hurriedly concealed thofe which were the leaft well-favoured. 
" Some of them fhe placed under hay, fome under ftraw and chaff, 
fome in the chimney, and fome in a tub of draff; but fuch as were 
fair and well made me wifely and cunningly kept with her." God told 
her that he had come to fee her children, that he might promote them 
in their different degrees ; upon which fhe prefented them in their order 
of birth. God then ordained the eldeft to be an emperor, the fecond to 
be a king, and the third a duke to guide an army ; of the reft he made 
earls, lords, barons, fquires, knights, and "hardy champions." Some he 
appointed to be "judges, mayors, and governors, merchants, fheriffs, and 
protectors, aldermen, and burgeffes." While all this was going on, Eve 
began to think of her other children, and, unwilling that they fhould lofe 
their fliare of honours, fhe now produced them from their hiding-places. 
They appeared with their hair rough, and powdered with chaff", fome full 
of ftraws, and fome covered with cobwebs and duft, " that anybody might 
be frightened at the fight of them." They were black with dirt, ill- 
favoured in countenance, and mifhapen in ftature, and God did not 
conceal his difguft. "None," he laid, "can make a veffel of filver out 
of an earthen pitcher, or goodly filk out of a goat's fleece, or a bright 
fword of a cow's tail; neither will I, though I can, make a noble gentle- 
man out of a vile villain. You fhall all be ploughmen and tillers of the 
ground, to keep oxen and hogs, to dig and delve, and hedge and dike, 
and in thiswise fhall ye live in endlefi fervitude. Even the townlinen 
fhall laugh you to fcorn ; yet fome of you ihall be allowed to dwell in 
cities, and fhall be admitted to fuch occupations as thofe of makers ol 
puddings, butchers, cobblers, tinkers, coftard-mongers, hofflers, or daubers." 
Such, the teller of the ffory informs us, was the beginning of fervile 
labour. 

2 H A 



41 8 Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 

A fong of the fifteenth century, printed in the collection of fongs and 
carols edited for the Percy Society, the burthen of which is the neceffity 
of money in all conditions, defcribes the different ranks and their various 
afpirations in the following order : the yeoman who defires to become a 
gentleman, the gentleman who feeks to be a fquire, the fquire who 
would be a knight, the lettered man who feeks diflincfion in the fchools, 
the merchant who afpired to rife to wealth, and the lawyer who fought 
promotion at the bar. In the interefting " Recueil de Poefies Francoifes 
des xv e et xvi e fiecles," by M. de Montaiglon (vol. iii. pp. J38, 147), 
there are two poems, probably of the latter part of the fifteenth century, 
entitled Les Souhaitz des Hommes (the wifhes of the men) and Les Souhaitz 
desFemmes (the withes of the women), in which the various claffes are made 
to declare that which they defire molt. Thus dukes, counts, and knights 
defire to be fkilful in warlike accomplifhments ; the prefident in parlia- 
ment defires the gold chain and" the feat of honour, with wifdom in 
giving judgment ; the advocate wifhes for eloquence in court, and for a 
fair bourgeoife or damoifelle at home to make his houfe joyful; the 
burgher wifhes for a good fire in winter, and a good fupply of fat capons; 
and the clergy are made to wifh for good cheer and handfome women. 
The wifhes of the women are on the whole, perhaps, more characferiftic 
than thofe of the men. Thus, the queen wifhes to be able to love God 
and the king, and to live in peace ; the duchefs, to have all the enjoy- 
ments and pleafures of wealth ; the countefs, to have a hufband who was 
loyal and brave 3 the knight's lady, to hunt the flag in the green woods ; 
the damoifelle, or lady of gentle blood, alfo loved hunting, and wifhed 
for a hufband valiant in war; and the chamber-maiden took pleafure in 
walking in the fair fields by the river-fide ; while the bourgeoife loved 
above all things a foft bed at night, with a good pillow, and clean white 
fheets. That part of fociety which now comes chiefly under our notice 
had fallen into two claffes, that which boafted gentle blood, and the 
ungentle, or burgher clafs, and this was particularly fhown among the 
ladies, for the bourgeoife fought continually to imitate the gentlewoman, 
or damoifelle, who, on her part, looked on thefe encroachments of the other 
with great jealoufy. M. de Montaiglon has printed in the collection juft 

quoted 



and Sentiments. 



419 



quoted (vol. v. p. 5) a ihort poem entitled, "The Debate between the 
Damoifelle and the Bourgeoife," in which the exclusive rights of gentle 
blood are ftrongly claimed and difputed. We have feen the lame ambi- 
tion of the wives of burghers and yeomen to ape the gentlewoman as far 
back as the days of Chaucer, and it now often becomes a fubjecl of 
popular fatire. Yet we muft not forget that this defire to imitate higher 
fociety aflifted much in refining the manners of the middle claffes. 
M. de Montaiglon (vol. ii. p. 18) has printed a ihort piece in verfe of 
the latter part of the fifteenth century, entitled the " Doctrinal des Filles," 
containing the fentiments which teachers fought to implant in the minds 
of young ladies, and it will fuit England at that time equally with France. 
The young ladies are here recommended to be bafhful ; not to be for- 
ward in falling in love ; to pay proper attention to their drefs, and to 
courteoufnefs in behaviour 3 and not to be too eager in dancing. From 
all that we gather from the writers of the time, the love of dancing 
appears at this period to have been carried to a very great degree of 
extravagance, and to have often led to great dilfolutenefs in focial manners, 
and the more zealous moralifts preached againft the dance with much 
earneftnefs. The author of our " Doctrinal" admonithes the young 
unmarried girl to dance with moderation when ihe is at the "carol" (the 
name of the ordinary dance), left people who fee her dancing too eagerly 
fhould take her for a diftblute woman — 

Fille, quant fere* en karolle, 
Danfez gentiment par mefure, 
Car, quant file je def mefure, 
Tel la -voit qui la tient four folk. 

The young lady is next cautioned againft talking fcandal, againft 
believing in dreams, againft drinking too much wine, and againft being 
too talkative at table. She was to avoid idlenefs, to refpect the aged, 
not to allow herfelf to be killed in fecret (killing in public was the 
ordinary form of falutation), and not to be quarrelfbme. She was 
efpecially to avoid being alone with a prieft, except at confeffiorij for 
it was dangerous to let priefts haunt the hcufe where there were young 
females — 

Fille, 



42 o Hiftory of Dome/lie Manners 

Filk, hormis confejjlon, 
Seullette ne parkz d prebjire ; 
Laijje%-les en leur eglife ejire, 
Sans ce quih hantent -vos maifons. 

Thefe lines, written and publiftied in a bigoted Roman Catholic country, 
by a man who was evidently a ftaunch Romanift, and addreffed to young 
women as their rule of behaviour, prefent perhaps one of the flrongeft 
evidences we could have of the evil influence exercifed by the Romifh 
clergy on focial morals, a fa 61, however, of which there are innumerable 
other proofs. 

Whatever may have been the effecf of mch teaching on the better 
educated claffes, the general character of the women of the middle and 
lower claffes appears to have been of a defcription little likely to be con- 
ducive to domeflic happinefs. All the popular materials for focial hiftory 
reprefent their morals as being very low, and their tempers as overbearing 
and quarrelfome, the confequence of which was a feparation of domeflic 
life among the two fexes after marriage, the hufbands, when not engaged 
at their work or buflnefs, feeking their amufement away from the houfe, 
and the wives affembling with their " goflips," often at the public taverns, 
to drink and amufe themfelves. In the old myfteries and morality plays, 
in which there was a good deal of quiet fatire on the manners of the age 
in which they were compofed and acfed, Noah's wife appears often as 
the type of the married woman in the burgher clafs, and her temper 
feems to have become almoft proverbial. In the "Towneley Myfteries," 
when Noah acquaints his wife with the approach of the threatened 
deluge, and of his orders to build the ark, the abufes him fo groffly as a 
common carrier of ill news, that he is provoked to ftrike her; the returns 
the blow, and they have a regular battle, in which the huflband has the 
advantage, but he is glad to efcape from her tongue, and proceed to his 
work. In the " Chefter Myfteries," Noah's wife will not go into the 
ark ; and when all is ready, the flood beginning, and the neceflity of 
taking her in apparent, (lie refutes to enter, unlefs fhe is allowed to take 
her goflips with her : — 

Yea,Jir,fette up youer fade, 
And roive fourth ivlth e-vill hade, 
For ivithouten fayle 



and Sentiments. 42 1 



/ ivill not oute of t/iis towne, 

But I have my gofippes everyechone (every one) 

One foote further I ivill not gone (po). 

They [ball not droiune, by Sante John, 

And I maye fa-ve ther life ! 

They Ioveti me full ivel, by Chrtfle ! 

But thout lett them into they cheife, 

Elks (otherwise) roive ncnue ivher the leijle (where you like), 

And gette thee a neive iviffe. 

It is to be fuppofed that Noah, when he wanted her, had found her with 
her goflips in the tavern. At laft, Noah's three fons are obliged to drag 
their mother into the " boat," when a fcene occurs which appears thus 
briefly indicated in the text, — 

Noye. 
Welckome, iviffe, into this botte ! 

Noye's Wiffe. 
Have thou that for thy note! [she beats him.] 

Noye. 
Ha, ha I marye, this is hotte ! 
It is good for to be fill. 

The converfation of thefe " goflips," when they met, was loofe and coarfe 
in the extreme, and, as defcribed in contemporary writings, the practice 
even of profane fwearing prevailed generally among both fexes to a degree 
which, to our ears, would found perfe6tly frightful —it was one of the 
vices againft which the moralifts preached molt bitterly. Life, indeed, in 
fpite of its occaflonal refinement in the higher ranks of fociety, was 
eflentially coarfe at this period, and we can hardly conceive much delicac v 
of people who dieted as, for inftance, the family of the earl of Northum- 
berland are reported to have done in the houfehold book, compiled in 
1512, which was publiihed by bilhop Percy. I only give the bivakl'ali 
allowances, which, on flefh-days, were "for my lord and my lady," a loaf 
of bread "in trenchers," two manchets (loaves of fine meal), one quarl of 
beer (or, as we lhould now call it, ale), a quart of wine, half a chine 
of mutton, or a chine of beef boiled ; for " my lord Percy and Mr. Thomas 

Perc) " 



422 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

Percy" (the two elder children), half a loaf of houfehold bread, a man- 
diet, one pottle of beer (two quarts — they were not yet allowed wine), a 
chicken, or elfe three mutton bones boiled ; " breakfafls for the nurcery, 
for my lady Margaret and Mr. Ingram Percy" (who in fa6t were mere 
children), a manchet, one quart of beer, and three mutton bones boiled ; 
for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of houfehold bread, a pottle of beer, 
and three mutton bones boiled, or elfe a piece of beef boiled. It will be 
feen here that the family dined two to a plate, or mefs, as was the ufual 
cuftom in the middle ages. On nth-days, the breakfaft allowances were 
as follows : for my lord and my lady, a loaf of bread in trenchers, two 
manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of fait fifh, fix 
baked herrings, or a difh of fprats ; for the two elder fons, half a loaf of 
houfehold bread, a manchet, a pottle of beer, a diih of butter, a piece of 
fait fifh, a dilh of fprats, or three white (frefh) herrings; for the two 
children in the nurfery, a manchet, a quart of beer, a dilh of butter, a 
piece of fait fifh, a difh of fprats, or three white herrings ; and for my 
lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of bread, a pottle of beer, a piece of fait fifh, 
or three white herrings. We fhall be inclined, in comparing it with our 
modern ftyle of living, to confider this as a very fubftantial meal to begin 
the day with. 

According to the old moral and fatirical writers, exceflive greedinefs 
in eating had become one of the prevailing vices of this age. Barclay, in 
his " Eclogues," gives a ftrange picfure of the bad regulations of the 
tables at the courts of great people, in the time of Henry VII. He 
defcribes the tables as ferved in great confufion, and even as covered with 
dirty table-cloths. The food he reprefents as being bad in itfelf, and 
often ill-cooked. Everybody, he fays, was obliged to eat in a hurry, 
unlefs he would lofe his chance of eating at all, and they ferved the worn: 
diihes firft, fo that when you had fatiated yourfelf with food which was 
hardly palatable, the dainties made their appearance. This led people to 
eat more than they wanted. When an attractive difh did make its 
appearance, it led literally to a fcramble among the guefts : — 

But if it fortune, as feldome doth befall, 
That at beginning come dijhes bejl of all, 

Or 



and Sentiments. 



423 



Or (before) thou haft tafted a morjell or tivayne, 
Thy di(h out of fight is taken foon agayne. 
Sltrwe be the f erven in ferving in alxoay, 
But fwifte be they after taking thy meate aivay. 
Afpeciall cuftome is ufed them among, 
No good difb to fuffer on borde to be longe. 
If the dip be plea/aunt, eyther fle/be orf/be, 
Ten handcs at once fwarme in the dijhe ; 
And if it bejlejbe, ten knives Jhalt thou fee 
Mangling thefiefh and in the platter fee ; 
To put there thy handes is perill ivithout fayle, 
Without a gauntlet or els a glove of mayle. 

It would thus feem that the fervers left the guefts, except thofe at the 
high table, to help themfelves. It appears that in the earlier part of the 
fifteenth century, the Engliih had gained the character of keeping 
the moft profufe tables, and being the greater! eaters, in Europe. Afcrap 
preferved in a manufcript of the reign of Henry VIII., and printed in the 
" Reliquiae Antiquae" (vol. i. p. 326), offers rather a curious excufe for 
this character. There was a merchant of England, we are told, who 
adventured into far countries, and when he had been there a month or 
more, a great lord invited this Engliih merchant to dinner. And when they 
were at dinner, the lord wondered that he eat not more of his meat, for, 
faid he, " Englishmen are called the greateft feeders in the world, and it 
is reported that one man will eat as much as fix of another nation, and 
more victuals are confumed there than in any other region." " It is 
true," the merchant replied, "it is fo, and for three reafonable caufes fo 
much victual is ferved on the table ; one of which is, for love, another, 
for phyfic, and the third, for dread. Sir, as concerns the firft, we are 
accuftomed to have many divers meats for our friends and kinsfolk, 
becaufe fome love one maimer of meat, and fome another, and we with 
every man to be Satisfied. Secondly, in regard of phyfic, becaufe for 
divers maladies which people have, fome men will eal one meat, and 
fome another, it is delirable that everybody ihonld be fuited. The third 
caufe is for dread ; for we have fo great abundance and plenty in our 
realm, of beafts and fowls, that if we mould nol kill and deftroy them, 
they would deftroy and devour us." It may be remarked that, during 

this 



this period, the Englifh merchants and burghers in general feem to have 
kept very good tables, and that the lower orders, and even the peafantry, 
appear to have been by no means ill fed. 

The confufion in ferving at table defcribed by Alexander Barclay was 
no doubt caufed in a great meafure by the numerous troops of riotous and 
unruly ferving men and followers, who were kept by the noblemen and 
greater land-holders, and who formed everywhere one of the curfes of 
fociety. Within the houfehold, they had become fo unmanageable that 
their mailers made vain attempts to regulate them ; while abroad they 
were continually engaged in quarrels, often fanguinary ones, with coun- 
trymen or townfmen, or with the retainers of other noblemen or gentle- 
men, in which their matters confidered that it concerned their credit to 
fupport and protecf them, fo that the quarrels of the fervants became 
fometimes feuds between their lords. The old writers, of all defcriptions, 
bear witnefs to the bad conduct of ferving men and fervants in general, 
and to their riotoufnefs, and efpecially of the gargons, or, as they were 
called in Englifh, " lads." Cain's garcio, in the " Towneley Myfteries," was 
intended as a picfure of this clafs, in all their coarfenefs and vulgarity ; 
and the character of Jak Garcio, in the play of "The Shepherds," in the 
fame collection, is another type of them. 

We have feen that the breakfaft in the houfehold of the Percys was a 
very fubflantial meal, but it feems not to have been generally confidered 
a regular meal, either as to what was eaten at it, or as to the hour at 
which it was taken. Perhaps this was left to the convenience, or caprice, 
of individuals.* We have a curious defcription of the divifion of the occu- 
pations of the day in a princely houfehold, in an account which has been 
left us of the houfehold regulations of the duchefs of York, mother of 
king Edward IV., which, however, were ftrongly influenced by the pious 
character of that princefs, who fpent much time in religious duties and 



* At a rather later period, sir Thomas Elyot, in his " Castell of Helth " 
(printed in 1541), recommends that breakfast should be taken about four hours 
before dinner, considering it therefore as a light meal, and he advises, in a sanitary 
view, that not less than six hours should be allowed to elapse between dinner and 
supper. 

obfervances. 



and Sentiments. 425 



obfervances. Her ufual hour of riling was feven o'clock, when fhe heard 
matins; fhe then "made herfelf ready," or dreffed herfelf, for the occu- 
pations of the day, and when this was done, fhe had a low mafs in her 
chamber. After this mafs, fhe took fomething " to recreate nature," 
which was, in fa£t, her breakfaft, though it is afterwards ftated that it 
was not a regular meal. She then went to chapel, and remained at 
religious fervice until dinner, which, as we are further told, took place, 
"upon eating days," at eleven o'clock, with a firft dinner in the time of 
high mafs for the various officers whofe duty it was to attend at table ; 
but, on fading days, the dinner hour was twelve o'clock, with a later 
dinner for carvers and waiters. After dinner, the princefs devoted an 
hour to give audience to all who had any bufinefs with her; lhe then 
flept for a quarter of an hour, and then fpent her time in prayer until the 
firft. peal of even-fong (vefpers), when " lhe drank wine or ale at her 
pleafure." She went to chapel, and returned thence to fupper, which, on 
eating days, was ferved at five o'clock, the carvers and fervers at table 
having fupped at four. The ordinary diet in the houfe of this princefs 
appears to have been extremely fimple. On Sunday, Tuefday, and 
Thurfday, the houfehold was ferved at dinner with beef and mutton, and 
one roaft; at fupper with "leyched" beef and roaft mutton; on Monday 
and Wednefday, they had boiled beef and mutton at dinner, and at fupper, 
the fame as on the three other days; on Friday, fait filh and two dilhes 
of frelh filh; and on Saturday, fait filh, one frefh filh, and butter, for 
dinner, and fait filh and eggs for fupper. After fupper, the prim-el's 
"difpofed herfelf to be familiar with her gentlewomen," with "honeft 
mirth ;" and one hour before going to bed fhe took a cup of wine, went 
to her privy clofet to pray, and was in bed by eight o'clock. 

The duchefs of York is of courfe to be looked upon as a model of 
piety and fobriety, and her hours are not perhaps to be taken as exa&ty 
thole of other people, and certainly not her occupations. In the 
French "Debat de la Damoifelle et de la Bourgeoife," the latter 
accufes the gentlewoman of late riling. " Before you are awake," the 
fays, " I am dreffed and have attended to my duties; do not therefore 
be furprifed if we are more diligent than you, linee you Qeep till dinner- 

3 1 time." 



426 



Hijfory of Dome/lie Manners 



time." "No," replies the damoifelle, "we muft fpend our evening in 
dancing, and cannot do as you, who go to bed at the fame time as your 
hens." 

It has been ftated already that, even in the higheft ranks of fociety, 
the ladies were ufually employed at home on ufeful, and often on profit- 
able work. This work embraced the various proceffes in the manufacture 
of linen and cloth, as well as the making it up into articles of drefs, and 
embroidery, netting, and other fimilar occupations. The fpinning-wheel 
was a neceflary implement in every houfehold, from the palace to the 
cottage. In 1437, John Notyngham, a rich grocer of Bury St. Edmunds, 
bequeathed to one of his legatees, "j fpynnyng whel et j par carpfarum," 
meaning probably "a pair of cards," an implement which is ftated in the 
"Promptorium Parvulorum" to be efpecially a "wommanys inftrument." 
A few years previoufly, in 141 8, Agnes Stubbard, a refident in the fame 
town, bequeathed to two of her maids, each, 
one pair of wool-combs, one " kembyng-ftok" 
(a combing-ftock, or machine for holding the 
wool to be combed), one wheel, and one pair 
of cards j and to another woman a pair of 
wool-combs, a wheel, and a pair of cards. 
John Baret, of Bury, in 1463, evidently a rich 
man with a very large houfe and houfehold, 
fpeaks in his will of a part of the houfe, or 
probably a room, which was diftinguilhed as 
the " fpinning houfe." Our cut No. 265, 
from an illuminated Bible of the fifteenth 
century in the Imperial Library at Paris (No. 6829), reprefents a woman 
of apparently an ordinary clafs of fociety at work with her diftaff under 
her arm. The next cut (No. 266) is taken from a fine illuminated manu- 
fcript of the well-known French " Boccace des Nobles Femmes," and 
illuftrates the ftory of « Cyrille," the wife of king Tarquin. We have 
here a queen and her maidens employed in the fame kind of domeftic 
labours. The lady on the left is occupied with her combs, or cards, and 
her combing-ftock 5 the other fits at her diftaff, alio fupported by a ftock, 

inftead 




No. 265. Lady at her Diftaff. 



a?id Sentiments. 



427 



inftead of holding it under her arm j and the queen, with her hand on 
the ihuttle, is performing the final operation of weaving. 

Some of the more elegant female accomplishments, which were 
unknown in the earlier ages, were now coming into vogue. Dancing 







No. 266. A Queen and her Damfels at Work. 

was, as already Slated, a more favourite amufement than ever, and it 
received a new eclat from the frequent introduction of new dances, of 
which fome of the old popular writers give us long lids. Some of thele, 
too, were of a far more acYive and exciting defcription than formerly. 
One of the perfonages in the early interlude of "The Four Elements," 
talks of perfons — 

That pall both daunce and fpryng, 
And tome clene above the grounde, 
With fryfeas and with gambatvdes round, 
That all the hall frail ryng. 

Mufic, alfo, was more extensively cultivated as a domeftic accomplish- 
ment : and it was a more common thing to meet with ladies who indulged 

in 



Hifiory of Domeftic Manners 



in literary purfuits. Sometimes, too, the ladies of the fifteenth century 
pracf ifed drawing and painting, — arts which, inftead of being, as formerly, 
reftricted almoft to the clergy, had now paffed into the hands of the laity, 
and were undergoing rapid improvement. The illuminated manufcript 
of "Boccace des Nobles Femmes," which furnifhed the fubject of our 
laft cut, contains feveral pictures of ladies occupied in painting, one of 
which (illuftrating the chapter on " Marcie Vierge") is reprefented in 
our cut No. 267. The lady has her palette, her colour-box, and her 




No. 267. A Lady Artijt. 



Hone for grinding the colours, much as an artift of the prefent day would 
have, though fhe is feated before a fomewhat Angularly formed frame- 
work. She is evidently painting her own portrait, for which purpofe ihe 
ufes the mirror which hangs over the colour-box. It is rather curious 
that the tools which lie by the fide of the grinding-ftone are thofe of a 
fculptor, and not thofe of a painter, fo that it was no doubt intended we 
fhould fuppofe that fhe combined the two branches of the art. In one of 
the illuminations of the manufcript of the " Romance of the Rofe,'' 
which has been quoted before, preferved in the Britifh Mufeum, we have 
a picture of a male painter, copied in our cut No. 268, and intended to 
reprefent Apelles, who is working with a palette and eafel, exactly as 

artifts 



and Sentiments. 



429 



artifts do at the preient day: both he and our lady artifl: in the cut are 
evidently painting on board. We begin now alfo to trace the exigence 




No. 268. A Painter at his Eafel. 

of a great number of domeftic fports and paftimes, fome of which ilill 
remain in ufage, but which we have not here room to enumerate. 

Out of doors, the garden continued to be the favourite refort of the 
ladies. It would be eafy to pick out numerous defcriptions of gardens 
from the writers of the fifteenth century. Lydgate thus defcribes the 
garden of the rich "churl:" — 

Whilom thcr ivas in a Jmal -village, 

As myn autor makethe reherfayle, 

A chorle, ivhiche hadde luff and a grcte corage 

Within hymfelf, be diligent travayle, 

To array his gardeyn tuith notable apparayle, 

Of lengthe and brede yclicke (equally) Jquare and longe, 

Hcgged and dyked to make it Jure and ftronge. 

Alle the aleis ivcre made playne tuith fond (sand), 

The benches (banks) turned ivith ncive tur-vis grene, 

Sote herbers (sweet beds of plants), ivith condite (fountain) at the honde, 

That ivellid up agayne the fonne fchene, 

Lyke filnjer tlrcmes as any crijla/lc clcne, 

Tin- 



43 o Hi ft or y of 'Dome/lie Manners 



The burbly •waives (bubbling waves) in up boyling, 
Rounde as byralle ther beamy s out Jhynynge. 

Amyddis the gardeyn flode a frejfl? laivrer (laurel), 
Theron a bird Jyngyng bothe day and nyghte. 

And at a fomewhat later period, Stephen Hawes, in his Angular poem 
entitled "The Paftime of Pleafure," defcribes a larger and more magni- 
ficent garden. Amour arrives at the gate of the garden of La Bel Pucel, 
and requefis the portrefs to conduct him to her miftrefs — 

{ ' Truly " quod fhe, " in the garden grene 
Of many a fwete and fundry flowre 
She maketh a garlonde that is <veray fbene, 
Wythe truelcves wrought in many a coloure, 
Replete with fwetenes and dulcet odoure ; 
And all alone, ivythout company, 
Amyddes an herber fhe Jitteth plefauntly.'''' 

From the defcription of this " gloryous" garden that follows, we might 
imagine that the practice of cutting or training trees and flowers into 
fantaftic fhapes, as was done with box-trees in the laft century, had pre- 
vailed among the gardeners of the fifteenth. The garden of La Bel 
Pucel is defcribed as being — 

Wyth Flora paynted and "wrought curyoujly, 
In divers knottes of mar-vaylous gretenes ; 
Rampande lyons Jlode up 'wonder fly, 
Made all of herbes with dulcet fwetenes, 
Wyth many dragons of marvaylos likenes, 
Of dyvers floures made ful craft ely, 
By Flora couloured wyth colours fundry. 

Amiddes the garden fo moche dele&able 
There was an herber fay re and quadrante, 
To paradyfe right well comparable, 
Set all about with four es fragr aunt $ 
And in the myddle there was refplendyjbaunte 
A dulcet fpring and mar-vaylous fountaine, 
Of golde and afure made all certaine. 

Befyde whiche fount ay ne, the moofl fayre lady 

La Bel Pucel was gayly fyttyng ; 

Of many floures fayre and ryally 

A goodly chaplet foe was in makynge. 



and Sentiments. 



43 



I have had occafion before to obferve that garlands and chaplets of 
flowers were in great requeft. in the middle ages, and the making of them 
was a favourite occupation. Our cut No. 269, taken from the illuminated 
calendar prefixed to the fplendid manufcript " Heures" of Anne of 
Brittany in the Imperial Library in Paris, where it illuftrates the month 
of May, reprefents the interior of a garden, with a lady thus employed 
with her maidens. This garden appears to be a fquare piece of ground, 
furrounded by a high wall, with a central compartment or lawn enclofed 




No. 269. A Lady and her Maidens weaving Garlands. 

by a fence of trellis-work and a hedge of rofe trees. Pictures of gardens 
will alfo be found in the MS. of the "Romance of the Rofe" already 
referred to, and in other illuminated books, but the illuminators were 
unable to reprefent the elaborate descriptions of the poets. Befides 
flowers, every garden contained herbs for medicinal and other purpofes, 
fuch as love-philtars, which were in great repute in the middle ages. In 
the romance of "Gerard de Nevers" (or La Violettc), an old woman 
goes into the garden attached to the cattle where (he lives, to gather 
herbs for making a deadly poifon. This incident is reprefented in our 
cut No. 270, taken from a magnificent illuminated manufcripl of the 
profe verfion of this romance in the Imperial Library in Paris. The 

garden 



43 2 



Hijiory of Domeftic Manners 



garden is here again furrounded by a wall, with a poftern gate leading to 
the country, and we have the fame trellis fencings as before. It appears 




No. 270. JL Lady gathering Herbs. 

to have been the ufual cuftom thus to enclofe and protect the beds in a 
garden with a trellis fence. 

The various games and exercifes praftifed by people out of doors feem 
to have differed little at this time from thofe belonging to former periods, 
except that from time to time we meet with allufions to kinds of amufe- 
ment which have not before been mentioned, although they were pro- 
bably well known. Among the drawings of the borders of illuminated 
manufcripts, from the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fixteenth, 
we meet with groups of children and of adults, which reprefent, doubtlefs, 
games of which both the names and the explanations are loft ; and fome- 
times we are furprifed to find thus reprefented games which otherwife we 
fhould have fuppofed to be of modern invention. One very curious 

inftance 






and Sentiments. 



433 



inftance may be Hated. In the now rather celebrated manufcript of the 
French romance of "Alexander," In the Bodleian Library at Oxford, 
which was written and illuminated in the fourteenth century, we have 




No. -2.-JI. A Puppet Show. 

reprefentations of a puppet ihow, which appears to be identical with our 
modern Punch and Judy. We copy one of thefe curious early drawings 
in our cut No. 271. 

Among the paftimes moft popular at this time with the lower 
and middle clalfes were archery, the practice of which was enforced by 
authority, and fhooting with the crosfbow, as well as moft of the ordinary 
rough games known at a later period, fuch as football and the like. The 
Englifli archers were celebrated throughout Europe. The poet Barclay, 
who wrote at the clofe of the century, makes the fhepherd in one of his 
eclogues not only boaft of his fkill in archery, but he adds — 

/ can dance the ray ; I can both pipe andfing, 
If I tvere mery ; I can both hurle and fling ; 
I runne, I ivrcjf/e, I can ivelle throiue the barn; 
No fhepherd throivctli the axel tree fofarre ; 
If I ivere mery, I could locll leapc and fpring ; 
/ ivere a man mete to fer-ve a prince or king. 

Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and tueh like fports, were alio purfued 
with avidity; and even gentlemen and young noblemen took part in 
them. Any game, in fa &, which produced violent exercife and violent 
excitement was in favour with all ranks. Among the higher claffes, 
hunting and haw king were purfued with more eagernefs than ever, and 

3 K they 



434 



Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 



they become now the fubjects of numerous written treatifes, fetting 
forth their laws and regulations. When gentlemen were riding out 
for pleafure, they were ufually accompanied with hawks and hounds. 




No. 272. A Party Hawking. 

In the annexed cut (No. 272), taken from an illuminated manufcript 
of the French Boccaccio at Paris (Imperial Library, MS. No. 6887), 






No. 273. 


A Royal Cc 


irriage and EJcort. 






a party 


thus attended 


meets 


another 


party 


on horfeback, 


and they 


are 


in the 


act of faluting 


each 


other. 


Horfes 


were ftill almoft the only 














conveyance 



mid Sentiments. 



435 



conveyance from place to place,, though we now more often meet 
with pictures of carriages; but, though evidently intended to be very 
gorgeous, they are of clumfy conftruclion, and feera only to have 
been ufed by princes or great nobles. I give two examples from a 
fuperbly illuminated manufcript of the French translation of "Valerius 
Maximus," in the great national library in Paris (No. 6984), executed in 
the latter part of the fifteenth century. The firfl. (cut No. 273) is a royal 
car, in which a throne has been placed for the king, who fits in it in fiate. 
His guards lead the horfes. The form of the carriage is very fimple ; it 
is a mere cart on wheels, without any fprings, and has a covering fup- 
ported on two large hoops, which are ftrengthened by crofs-bars refembling 
the fpokes of a wheel. In the fecond example (cut No. 274), the car- 




No. 274. Tullia Riding o-vcr her Father's Body. 

riage bears fome refemblance to a modern omnibus. It is intended to 
reprefent the incident in Roman hitlory, where the unlilial Tullia caufed 
her charioteer to drive over the body of her lather, Senilis Tullus, who 
had been flain by her hufband Tarquin the Proud. The ladies appear to 
fit on benches infide the carriage, while the driver is mounted on the 
horfe neareft to it. Thefe carriages dill retained the name of carts, 
although they appear to have been ufed chiefly on ftate occasions. Riding 
in them mult have been very uncaly, and they were expofed to accid< llts. 
When Richard II. made his grand entry into London, a ceremony 
defcribed by Richard de Maidftone in Latin verfe, the ladies of the courl 

rode 



43 6 



Hijlory of Domejiic Manners 



rode in two cars, or carts, one of which fell over, and expofed its fair 
occupants in a not very decorous manner to the jeers of the multitude. 

As yet carriages feem not to have been ufed in travelling, which was 
performed on horfeback or on foot. During the century of which we are 
fpeaking, efpecially after the acceffion of Henry VI. to the Engliih 
throne, the roads were extremely infecure, the country being inferred by 
fuch numerous bands of robbers that it was neceffary to travel in con- 
siderable companies, and well armed. From this circumftance, and from 
the political condition of the age, the retinue of the nobility and gentry 
prefented a very formidable appearance ; and fuch as could only afford to 
travel with one or two fervants generally attached themfelves to fome 
powerful neighbour, and contrived to make their occafions of locomotion 
coincide with his. We find feveral allufions to the dangers of travelling 
in the Pafton Letters. In a letter dated in 1455 or 1460 (it is uncertain 
which), Margaret Paflon defires her hufband, then in London, to pay a 
debt for one of their friends, becaufe, on account of the robbers who 
befet the road, money could not be fent fafely from Norfolk to the 
capital. A year or two earlier, we hear 
of a knight of Suffolk riding with a 
hundred horfemen, armed defenhvely and 
offensively, befides the accompaniment 
of friends. As travelling, however, be- 
came frequent, it led to the multiplication 
of places of entertainment on the roads, 
and large hoftelries and inns were now 
fcattered pretty thickly over the country, 
not only in all the fmaller towns, but 
often in villages, and fometimes even in 
comparatively lonely places. In the 
manufcript of the French Boccaccio in the Imperial Library (No. 6887), 
there is a picture (copied in our cut No. 275) reprefenting a publican 
ferving his liquor on a bench outnde his door. 

The tavern was the general lounge of the idle, and even of the 
induftrious, during their hours of relaxation ; and in the towns a good 

part 




and Sentiments. 437 



part of the male population who had not domeftic eftablilhments of their 
own appear to have lived at the taverns and eating-houfes, the allure- 
ments of which drew them into every fort of dillipation, which ended in 
the ruin of men's fortunes and health. The poet Occleve, in his 
reminifcences of his own conduct, defcribes the life of the riotous young 
men of his time. The fign which hung at the tavern door, he lays, was 
always a temptation to him, which he could feldom relift. The tavern 
was the refort of women of light chara&er, and was the fcene of brawls 
and outrages ; by the former of which he was frequently feduced into 
extravagant expenditure, but his want of courage, he confelfes, kept him 
out of the latter. Weftminfter gate was then celebrated for its taverns 
and cooks' fhops, at which the poet Occleve's lavifhnefs made him a 
welcome gueft : — 

Wher was a grctter maifter eek thany, 

Or bet acaweyntid at Wefimynfter yate, 

Among the taverneres namely (especially) 

And cookes ? Whan I cam, eerly or late, 

I pynchid nat at hem In myne acate (purchase of provisions), 

But paled hem as that they axe ivolde j 

Whcrfore I <was the luelcomer a/gate (always), 

And for a -vert-ay (true) gentilman yholde. 

Here he fpent his nights in inch a manner that he went to bed Later 
than any of his companions, except perhaps two, whofe time of going to 
bed he fays that he did not know, it was fo late, but he alferts that they 
loved their beds fo well that they never left them till near prime, or fix 
o'clock in the morning, which thus appears, at the beginning of the 
fifteenth century, to have been confidered an excefiively late hour for 
riling. 

The tavern was alio the refort of women of the middle and lower 
orders, who affembled there to drink, and to goffip. It has been already 
ftated that, in the myfteries, or religious plays, Noah was reprefented as 
finding his wife drinking with her gollips at the tavern when he wanted 
to take her into the ark. The meetings of goflips in taverns form the 
luhjei'ts of many of the popular longs of the fifteenth and fixteenth 
centuries, both in England and France. It appears that link- meetings 

... 



438 Hiftory of Do?neJiic Manners 

of goffips in taverns were the firft examples of what we now call a 
pic-nic, for each woman took with her fome provifions, and with thefe 
the whole party made a feaft in common. A fong of perhaps the middle 
of the fifteenth century, printed in my collection of " Songs and Carols," 
edited for the Percy Society, gives us rather a picturefque defcription of 
one of thefe goflip-meetings. The women, having met accidentally, the 
queftion is put where the belt wine was to be had, and one of them 
replies that fhe knows where could be procured the bell drink in the 
town, but that ihe did not with her hufband to be acquainted with it : — 

I knoio a dratvght of mery-go-doivne, 
The beft it is in all thys toivne ; 
But yet tvold I not, for my goivne, 
My hujbond it ivyfl, ye may me truft. 

The place of meeting having thus been fixed, they are repre Tented as 
proceeding thither two and two, not to attract obfervation, left their 
hulbands might hear of their meeting. " God might fend me a ftripe or 
two," laid one, "if my hulband Ihould fee me here." "Nay," faid 
Alice, another, " lhe that is afraid had better go home ; I dread no man." 
Each was to carry with her fome goofe, or pork, or the wing of a capon, 
or pigeon pie, or fome fimilar article — 

And ich (each) off them ivyll fumivhat bryng, 
Goffe, fiygge, or capons ivyng, 
Pafte's off pigeons, or fum other thyng. 

Accordingly, on arriving at the tavern, they call for wine "of the beft," 
and then 

Ech off them brought forth ther dyfch ,• 
Sum brought fefij, and fume fyjh. 

Their converfation runs firft on the goodnefs of the wines, and next on 
the behaviour of their hulbands, with whom they are all diflatisfied. In 
one copy of the fong, a harper makes his appearance, whom they hire, 
and dance to his mulic. When they pay their reckoning, they find, in 
one copy of the fong, that it amounts to threepence each, and rejoice 
that it is fo little, while in another they find that each has to pay fix- 
pence, and are alarmed at the greatnefs of the amount. They agree to 

feparate, 



and Sentiments. 



439 



feparate, and go home by different ftreets, and they are represented as 
telling their hulbands that they had been to church. This is no doubt 
a picture of a common fcene in the fifteenth century. Among the 
municipal records of Canterbury, there is preferved the depofition of a 
man who appears to have been fufpected of a robbery, and who, to prove 
an alibi, defcribes all his actions during three days. On one of thele, 
Monday, he went after eight o'clock in the evening to a tavern, and 
there he found "wyfes" drinking, "that is to fay, Goddardes wyfe, Corne- 
welles wyfe, and another woman," and he had a halfpennyworth of beer 
with them. This was apparently at the beginning of the reign of 
Henry VIII. 

It has been intimated before, that literature and reading had now 
become more general accomplilhments than formerly. We can trace 
among the records of focial hiftory a general 
fpreading of education, which lhowed an 
increafing intellectual agitation ; in fact, 
education, without becoming more perfect, 
had become more general. I have already 
given figures of the implements of writing 
at an earlier period. In one of the com- 
partments of the tapeftry of "Nancy"' (of 
the latter part of this century), engravings 
of which have been publilhed by M. Achille 
Jubinal, we have a figure of a fcribe (cut 
No. 276) with all his apparatus of writing, 
—the pen, the penknife, and the portable 
pen-cafe with ink-ftand attached. But the 
moft curious article which this fcribe has 
in ufe is a pair of fpeSiacles. Spectacles, however, we know had been in 
exiitence long before this period. A century earlier, Chaucer's " ^ ife oi 
Bath" obferved rather fententioufly : — 

Po-vert Jul often, lohan a man is lotve, 
Makcth him his God and eck himjclf to knoiue. 
Pwvcrt a spectacle is, as thinkcth me, 
Thurgh which he may his -vcrray frendes fe. 

I ydgate, 




No. 276. A Scribe, in SpcSacles, 
from the tapeftry of Nancy. 



44-Q Hiftory of Dotneftic Manners 

Lydgate, addreffing an old man who was on the point of marrying a 
young wife, tells him to 

Z,oke Jone after a potent (staff) and spectacle; 
Be not ajhamed to take hem to thyn eafe. 

John Baret, of Bury St. Edmunds, in. 1463, left by will to one of the 
monks of Bury, his ivory tables (the tabulce for writing on), and a pair of 
fpe6tacles of filver-gilt : — "Item: To daun Johan Janyng, my tablees of 
ivory, with the combe, and a payre fpeftacles of fylvir and ovir-gilt." 
This {hows that already in the middle of the fifteenth century, a pair of 
fpeclacles was not an uncommon article. 



and Sentiments. 44: 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CHANGES IN ENGLISH DOMESTIC MANNERS DURING THE PERIOD 

BETWEEN THE REFORMATION AND THE COMMONWEALTH. THE 

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S HOUSE. ITS HALL. THE FIREPLACE AND 

FIRE. UTENSILS. COOKERY. USUAL HOURS FOR MEALS. BREAK- 
FAST.: — DINNER, AND ITS FORMS AND CUSTOMS. THE BANftUET. 

CUSTOM OF DRINKING HEALTHS. 

THE Reformation brought with it, or at all events it was coeval with, 
a general revolution in fociety. Although the nobility ftill kept up 
much of their ancient ftate, feudalifm was deftroyed during the reigns of 
the firfb two Tudors, while the lower and middle clalfes of the population 
were rifing in condition and in the confcioufneis of their own importance, 
and with this rife came an increafe of domeftic comforts and focial 
development. It was on the ruins of the monaftic property, confifcated 
by Henry VIII., that the Englifli gentlemen gained their higher! pofition, 
and, by their independence of the old ariftocracy, they aflifted in finally 
breaking its power, and thus gave a new character to Engliih fociety, 
which at the fame time was experiencing influences that came fuc- 
ceffively from without. Till the reign of Elizabeth, and after her accef- 
fion to the throne, there was a clofe connection with the Netherlands and 
Germany, and we imported mod of our novelties and falhions from our 
Proteftant-neighbours on the continent; whilfi, from Elizabeth's reign 
onwards, and with little intermillion to the prefent time, France has 
been our principal model for imitation. This is a point which is the 
more neceflary to be obferved in treating of this fubject, becaufe during 
the period between the Reformation and the Commonwealth, the art ol 
engraving in this country had been carried to little perfection, and was 
comparatively rarely practifed, and we arc obliged to look tor our pictorial 
illuftrations of manners to the works of foreign artifts. 

3 l In 



442 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



In towns, domeftic architecture experienced no great change in the 
courfe of the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries. Small narrow ftreets, 
with buildings chiefly of the clafs we term half-timber houfes — the beft 
of which had their lower ftory of ftone, while thofe above, each projecting 
beyond the one below it, confifted of a timber framework filled up with 
bricks — occupied the greater part of the town, and gave it a compa6t 




No. 277. Houfes in the Streets of a Town, Fifteenth Century. 

appearance which was quite inconfiftent with our modern notions of 
fanitary arrangement. In the interior the rooms were generally fmall 
and dark, but domeftic comfort feems not to have been fo much over- 
looked as we are in the habit of fuppofing. Our cut No. 277, taken 
from an engraving in the Englifh edition of Barclay's "Ship of Fools," 



and Sentiments. 



443 



1 57°> gives us a good reprefentation of the general appearance of houfes 
in a town at that period. In the country a greater change had taken 
place in all but the houfes of the peafantry. The older caftles had 
become obfolete, and, with the increating power and efficiency of the 
laws, it was no longer neceffary to confult ftrength before convenience. 
The houfes of the gentry were, however, frill built of confiderable extent, 
and during the fixteenth century the older domeflic arrangements were 
only flightly modified. Now, however, inftead of feeking a flrong 
polition, people chofe fituations that were agreeable and healthful, where 
they might be protected from inclemency of weather, and where gardens 
and orchards might be planted advantageoufly. Thus, like the earlier 
monaific edifices, a gentleman's houfe was built more frequently on low 
ground than on a hill. 

In the fixteenth century, the hall continued to hold its pofition as the 




No. 278. The " Hundred Men's Hall," at St. Crofs, near Winch 



great public apartment of the houfe, and in its arrangements it frill 
differed little from thofe of an earlier date ; it was indeed now the only 

part 



444 



Hiflory of Domeftic Ma?i?jers 



part of the houfe which had not been affecfed by the increafing tafte for 
domeftic privacy. We have many examples of the old Gothic hall in 
this country, not only as it exifted and was ufed in the fixteenth century, 
but, in fome cafes, efpecially in colleges, ftill ufed for its original purpofes. 
One of the fimpleft, and at the fame time beft, examples is found in the 
Hofpital of St. Crofs, near Winchefter, and a iketch of the interior, as 
reprefented in our cut No. 278, will ferve to give a general notion of the 
arrangements of this part of the manfion in former days. As the hall was 
frequently the fcene of feftivities of every defcription, a gallery for the 
muficians was confidered one of its neceflary appendages. In fome cafes, 
as at Madresfield in Worceflerfhire, a gallery ran round two or more fides 
of the hall j but generally the mulic gallery occupied one end of the hall, 
oppofite the dais. Under it was a paflage, feparated from the hall by a 
wooden fcreen, ufually of panel-work, and having on the oppofite fide the 
kitchen and buttery. In the large halls, the fireplace ftill frequently occu- 





pied the centre of the hall, where there was a fmall, low platform of ftone. 
This is diftin&ly feen in the preceding view of the interior of the hall of 
St. Crofs. In our cut No. 279 we give another example of this kind of 

fireplace, 



and Sentiments. 445 



fireplace, from the hall at Penfhurft in Kent, where it is llill occupied by 
the iron dogs, or andirons, that fupported the fuel. It may be obferved 
that thefe latter, in the north of England and in fome other parts, were 
called cobirons. 

The implements attached to the fireplace had hitherto been few in 
number, and fimple in character, but they now became more numerous. 
In the inventories previous to the fixteenth century they are feldom 
mentioned at all, and the gloffaries fpeak only of tongs and bellows. 
In the will of John Baret of Bury, made in 1463, "a payre of tongys 
and a payre belwys" are mentioned. John Hedge, a large houfeholder 
of the fame town in 1504, fpeaks of "fpytts, rakks, cobernys, aundernnys, 
trevettes, tongs, with all other iryn werkes moveabyll within my houfe 
longying." This would feem to fhow that cobirons and andirons were 
not' identical, and it has been fuppofed that the former denomination 
belonged more particularly to the refts for fupporting the {pit. The 
fchoolmafter of Bury, in 1552, bequeathed to his hoftefs, "my cobbornes, 
the fire pany (? pan), and the tonges." If we turn to the north, we find 
in the collection of wills publifhed by the Surtees Society a more fre- 
quent enumeration of the fire implements. William Blakefon, pre- 
bendary of Durham, poffeffed in 1549 only "a payre of cobyrons and one 
payre of tongys." In 1 551, William Lawfon, of Newcaftle-on-Tyne, had 
in his hall "one yryn chymney, and a poor, with one paire of tonges," 
which are valued at the rather high fum of thirty ihillings. This is the 
firft mention of the iron chimney, or grate, but it occurs continually after 
the middle of the fixteenth century. In 1557, the "iron chymney" of 
the parifh clerk of St. Andrew's in Newcaffle was valued at twenty 
(hillings. The fire implements in the hall of the farm-houfe at Wefl 
Rundon near Northallerton, in 1,562, were "j. cnifetl, ij. rachyncrokes, 
j. pair of tonges, one paire off cobyrons, j. fpeitt, one paire off potes." 
We find the creflet frequently included among the implements attached 
to the fireplace. The racking-crook was the pothook. In 1564, John 
Bynley, minor canon of Durham, had in his hall "one iron chimney, 
with a bake (back), porre (a pnr, or poker), tongs, fier fhoel (ftrejhovel), 
fpette (/pit), and a littcll rake pertening thereto." The- lire-irons in the 

hall 



446 



Hiftory of Dome flic Manners 



hall of Margaret Cottam, widow, of Gatefhead, in 1564, were " one iron 
chimney, one porr, one payre of toynges, gibcrokes, rakincroke, and 
racks." The gibcrokes was probably a fort of pothook or jack. Nearly 
the fame lift of articles occurs frequently in fubfequent inventories. In 




No. 280. Ornamental Fire-irons, Sixteenth Century. 



1567, a houlekeeper of Durham had among other fuch articles "a 
gallous (gallows) of iron with iiij. crocks." The gallows was, of courfe, 
the crofs-bar of iron, which projected acrofs the chimney, and from 
which the crooks or chains with hooks at the end for fuftaining pots were 

fufpended 5 



and Sentiments. 



447 



fufpended ; as the gallows turned upon hinges, the pot could be moved 
over the fire, or from it, at pleafure, without being taken from the hook, 
and as the crooks, of which there were ufually more than one, were of 
different lengths, the pot might be placed lower to the fire or higher 
from it, at will. From the character of fome of thefe adjuncts to the 
fireplace, it is evident that the hall fire was frequently ufed for cooking. 
The fixteenth century was the period at which ornamentation was carried 
to a very high degree in every defcription of houfehold uteniil, and to 
judge from the valuation of fome of thefe articles in the inventories, 
they were no doubt of elegant or elaborate work. Numerous examples 
of ornamental ironwork, fpecially applied to fire-dogs or andirons, will 
be found in Mr. M. A. Lower's interesting paper on the ironworks of 
Suffex; and many others, ftill more elaborate, are preferved in fome of 
our old gentlemen's houfes in different parts of the country ; but this 
ornamentation was carried to a far higher degree in the great manu- 
factories on the continent, from whence our countrymen in the fixteenth 
and feventeenth centuries obtained a large portion of their richer furni- 
ture. The figure in the middle of the group of fire-irons reprefented in 
our cut No. 280, is an example of a fire-dog of this elaborate defcription, 
preferved in the collection of count Bran- 
caleoni, in Paris, whence alio the other 
articles in the cut are taken. Moft of 
them explain themfelves; the implement 
to the right is a fomewhat Angularly 
formed pair of tongs ; that immediately 
beneath the fire-dog is an inftrument 
for moving the logs of wood which then 
ferved as fuel. As a further example of 
the remarkable manner in which almoft 
every domeftic article was at this period 
adorned, we may point out a box-iron, 
for ironing linen, &c. (cut No. 281), which is alio preferved in our of the 
French collections ; fuch an article was of courfe not made to be 
expofed to the action of the fire, and this circumftance gave rife u> the 

contrivance 




No. 281. A Box-iron, Sixteenth Century. 



44§ 



Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 



contrivance of forming it into a box, with a feparate iron which was to 
be heated and placed infide. 

The fire-irons, as we find them enumerated in writings or pictured in 
engravings, appear to have formed the fame lift, or nearly fo, though of 
courfe differing in form and ornament according to the varying fafhions 
of the day, until at a confiderably later period they were reduced to the 
modern trio of lhovel, poker, and tongs. The fingle pothook, with a 
contrivance for lengthening it and fhortening it, is fhown in our cut 
No. 282, taken from one of the remarkable wood engravings in '.' Der 
Weifs Kunig," — a feries of prints illuftrative of the youthful life of 




No. 282. Fireplace and Pothook. 

Maximilian I. of Germany, who afcended the imperial throne in 1493. 
The engravings are of the fixteenth century, and the form of the fire- 
place belongs altogether to the age of the Renaiffance. The gallows, 
with its pothooks or crokes of different lengths, appears in our cut 
No. 283, taken from Barclay's "Ship of Fools," the edition of 1570, 
though the defign is fomewhat older. The method of attaching the 
crooks to one fide of the fireplace, when not in ufe, is exhibited in this 
engraving, as alfo the mode in which other fmaller utenfils were attached 
to the walls. In this latter inftance there are no dogs or andirons in the 

fireplace, 



and Sentiments. 



449 



fireplace, but the pot or boiler is (imply placed upon the fire, without 
other fupport. There were, however, other methods of placing the pot 
upon the fire; and in one of the curious wooden fculptures in the church 
of Kirby Thorpe, in Yorkshire, reprefenting a cook cleaning his dilln.s, 




\ 111 

No. 283. The Fireplace and its ufi 



No. 284. A Cook cleaning his Dific 



the boiler is placed over the fire in a fort of four-legged frame, as repre- 
fented in the annexed cut No. 284. 

Early in the feventeenth century the fireplace had taken nearly its 
prefent form, although the dogs or andirons had not yet been fup( rfeded 
by the grate, which, however, had already conic into ule. This later 
form of the fireplace is fhown in our cut No. &&% taken from one oi an 
interesting feries of prints, executed by the French artiil, Abraham BofTe, 
in the year 16,35. It reprefents a domeftic party ining fritters in Lent. 
One of the dogs is (can at the foot of the opening of the firepla< e. 

3 m In 



45° 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



In the fixteenth century, the articles of furniture in the hall con- 
tinued to be much the fame as in the century preceding. It continued 
to be fnrniihed with hangings of tapeftry, but they feem not always to 
have been in ufe ; and they were frill placed not abfolutely againft the 




No. 285. Frying Fritters. 

wall, but apparently at a little diftance from it, fo that people might 
conceal themfelves behind them. If the hall was not a very large 
one, a table was placed in the middle, with a long bench on each fide. 
There was generally a cupboard, or a "hutch," if not more, with fide 
tables, one or more chairs, and perhaps a fettle, according to the tafte or 
means of the poffeflbr. We hear now alfo of tables with leaves, and of 
folding tables, as well as of counters, or deiks, for writing, and dreffers, 
or fmall cupboards. The two latter articles were evidently, from their 
names, borrowed from the French. Cufhions were alfo kept in the 

hall, 



attd Sentiments. 45 1 



hall, for the feats of the principal perfons of the houfehold, or for the 
females. The furniture of the hall of William Lawibn, of Newcafile- 
upon-Tyne, in 1551, confifted of one table of wainfcot, valued at twenty 
{hillings, two double counters, valued together at thirty {hillings, a drawer 
and two forms, eftimated at five {hillings, two culhions and two chairs, 
alfo valued at five fhillings, live other culhions, valued at twelve {hillings, 
two carpet cloths and a cupboard cloth, valued together at ten {hillings, 
and the hangings in the hall, eftimated to be worth fifty ihillings. This 
feems to have been a very well furniihed hall ; that of Robert Goodchild, 
parilh clerk of St. Andrew's in Newcaftle, in 1557, contained an almery 
(or large cupboard), eftimated at ten Ihillings ; a counter "of the myddell 
bynde," fix ihillings ; a cupboard, three fhillings and fourpence ; five bafins 
and fix lavers, eight {hillings; feventeen "powder (pewter) doblers," 
leventeen fhillings ; fix pewter difhes and a hand-bafin, five ihillings ; 
fix pewter faucers, eighteen pence; four pottle pots, five ihillings and 
fourpence, three pint pots and three quart pots, three ihillings; ten can- 
dlefticks, fix fhillings; a little peftle and a mortar, two ihillings; three 
old chairs, eighteen pence ; fix old culhions, two ihillings ; and two 
counter-cloths. Much of the furniture of Engliih houies at this time 
was imported from Flanders. Jane Lawfon, in the year laft mentioned, 
had in her hall at Little Burdon in Northumberland, " Flanders counters 
with their carpets." She had alfo in the hall, a long fide table, three long 
forms and another form, two chairs, three ftools, fix new culhions and 
three old culhions, and an almery. The whole furniture of the hall of 
the rectory houfe of Sedgefield in Durham, which appears to have been 
a large houfe and well entertained, confifted of a table of plane-tree with 
joined frame, two tables of fir with frames, two forms, a fettle, and a pair 
of treftles. The hall of Bertram Anderfon, a rich and diftinguifhed 
merchant and alderman of Ncwcattle-upon-Tyne, in 1570, was furnillnd 
with two tables with the carpets (table-covers), three forms, one dozen 
culhions, half-a-dozen green culhions, one counter with the carpet, two 
"bafinges" (Icijins), and two covers, one chair, and one little chair. This 
is a linking proof of the rarity of chairs even at this late date. Bullet 
ftools, which are fuppoied to be the ftools with a tl.it top ami a hole in 

the 



452 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners 

the middle through which the hand might be paffed to lift them, are 
alfo mentioned among the articles of furniture in the hall at this period. 
The furniture of the hall at the manor-houfe of Croxdale, in the county 
of Durham, in the year 157 1, confided of one cupboard, one table, two 
buffet ftools, and one chair ; yet Salvin of Croxdale was looked upon as 
one of the principal gentry of the Palatinate. In enumerating the furni- 
ture of the ancient hall, we muft not forget the arms which were ufually 
difplayed there, efpecially by fuch as had dependent upon them a certain 
number of men whom it was their duty or their pride to arm. The hall 
of a rich merchant of Newcaftle, named John Wilkinibn, contained in 
157 1, the following furniture: one almery, one table of wainfcot, one 
counter, one little counter, one dreifer of wainfcot, one " pulk," three 
chairs, three forms, three buffet ftools, fix cufhions of tapeftry, fix old 
cufhions of tapeftry, fix green cufhions, two long carpet cloths, two 
fhort carpet cloths, one fay carpet cloth, the "hyngars" in the hall, on 
the almery head one bafin and ewer, one great charger, three new 
" doblers," one little cheft for fugar, and one pair of wainfcot tables ; and 
of arms, two jacks, three fallets of iron, one bow and two fheaves of 
arrows, three bills, and two halberts. Some of the entries in thefe 
inventories are amufing ; and, while fpeaking of arms, it may be flated, 
that a widow lady of Bury, Mary Chapman, who would appear to have 
been a warlike dame, making her will in 1649, leaves to one of her fons, 
among other things, "alfo my mufkett, reft, bandileers, fword, and head- 
piece, my jacke, a fine paire of fheets, and a hutche." In 1,577, Thomas 
Liddell, merchant of Newcaftle, had in his hall, " three tables of waynf- 
coot, fex qwyfhons of tapeftery, a cowborde, three wainfcoot formes, two 
chayrs, three green table clothes, fower footftoles, fixe quylhons, two 
candlefticks, a louckinge glaffe, fexe danlke pootts of powther (pewter), 
two bafings, and two vewers (ewers), a laver and a bafinge, fyve buffatt 
ftules." It is curious thus to trace the furniture of the hall at different 
periods, and compare them together; and we cannot but remark from 
the frequency with which the epithet old is applied to different articles, 
towards the end of the century that the hall was beginning rapidly to 
fall into dilute. The caufe of this was no doubt the increafing tafte for 

domeftic 



and Sentiments. 



453 



domeflic retirement, and the with to withdraw from the publicity which 
had always attended the hall, and it gradually became the mere entrance 
lobby of the houfe, the place where ftrangers or others were allowed to 
remain until their pretence had been announced, which is the fenfe in 
which we commonly ufe the word hall, as part of the houfe, at the 
prefent day. In the enumeration of the parts of a houfe given in the 
Engliih edition of Coraenius's "Janua Linguarum," in the middle of 
the feventeenth century, there is no mention of a hall. "A houfe," we 
are told in this quaint book, " is divided into inner rooms, fuch as are the 
entry, the ftove, the kitchen, the buttery, the dining-room, the gallery, 
the bed-chamber, with a privy made by it 5 baikets are of ufe for carrying 
things to and fro ; and cherts (which are made faft with a key) for 
keeping them. The floor is under the roof. In the yard is a well, a 
ftable, and a bath. Under the houfe is the cellar." 




No. 286. A Folding Table. 

It has already been remarked that tables with leaves began to be 
mentioned frequently after the commencement of the fixteenth century. 

Andrew 



454 



Hiftory of ' Domejiic Ma?2ners 



Andrew Cranewife, of Bury, in 1558, enumerates "one cupborde in the 
hall, one plaine table with one leafe." He fpeaks further on, in the 
fame will, of " my beft folte (fold or folding) table in the hall, and two 
great hutches." In 1556, Richard Claxton, of Old Park, in the county 
of Durham, fpeaks of a "folden table" in the parlours, which was valued 
at two millings. Thefe folding tables appear to have been made in a 
great variety of forms, fome of which were very ingenious. Our cut 
No. 286 reprefents a very curious folding table of the fixteenfh century, 
which was long preferred at Flaxton Hall, in Suffolk, but perifhed in the 
fire when that manfion was burnt a few years ago. As reprefented in 
the cut, which fhows the table folded up fo as to be laid afide, the legs 
pull out, and the one to the right fits into the lion's mouth, and is fecured 
by the pin which hangs befide it. 

The methods of lighting the hall at night were ftill rather clumfy, 
and not very perfect. Of courfe, when the apartment was very large, a 
few candles would produce comparatively little effect, and it was there- 
fore found neceffary to ufe torches, and inflammable maffes of larger fize. 
1 2 





No. 287. Crejfet and Moon. 

One method of fupplying the deficiency was to take a fmall pan, or port- 
able fireplace, filled with combuflibles, and fufpend it in the place where 
light was required. Such a receptacle was ufually placed at the top of a 
pole, for facility of carrying about, and was called a crelfet, from an old 

French 



and Sentiments. 455 



French word which meant a night-lamp. The creflet is mentioned by 
Shakeipeare and other writers as though it were chiefly ufed in proceflions 
at night, and by watchmen and guides. The firft figure in our cut 
No. 287, taken from Douce's " Illuflxations of Shakeipeare," reprefents 
one of the crelfets carried by the marching watch of London in the 
fixteenth century. From the continual mention of the creflet along with 
the fire-irons of the hall, in the wills publilhed by the Surtees Society, 
we can hardly doubt its being ufed, at leaft in the north of England, for 
lighting the hall itfelf. An improvement of the common crelfet con- 
fifted in enclofing the flame, by whatever material it was fed, in a cafe 
made of fome tranfparent fubftance, fuch as horn, and thus making it 
neither more nor lefs than a large lantern fixed on the end of a pole. 
The form of this implement was generally globular, and, no doubt from 
its appearance when carried in the night, it was denominated a moon. 
The "moon" was carried by fervants before the carriages of their matters, 
to guide them along country lanes, and under other fimilar circumftances. 
The fecond figure in our cut No. 287 reprefents a "moon" which was 
formerly preferved at Ightham Moat Houfe, in Kent ; the frame was of 
brafs, and the covering of horn. To affift in lighting the hall, fometimes 
candlefticks were fixed to the walls round the hall, and this perhaps will 
explain the rather large number of candlefticks fometimes enumerated 
among the articles in that part of the houfe. In our cut No. 282, we 
have an example of a candleftick placed on a frame, which, turning on a 
pivot or hinges, may be turned back againft the wall when not in ufe. 

During the period of which we are now (peaking, almoll everything 
connected with the table underwent great change. This was leaft the 
cafe with regard to the hours of meals. The ufual hour of breakfafl was 
feven o'clock in the morning, and feems fcarcely to haw varied. During 
the fixteenth century, the hour of dinner was eleven o'clock, or jufl four 
hours after breakfafl. "With us," fays Ilarriibn in his defcription of 
England, prefixed to Holinftied's Chronicle, " the nobilitie, gentrie, and 
fludents (he means the Univerlities), doo ordinarilie go to dinner at 
eleven before noone, and to (upper at live, or between five and fixe, al 
afternoone." Before the end of the century, however, the dinner hour 

appears 



456 Hijiory of Dome ft ic Manners 

appears to have varied between eleven and twelve. In a book entitled 
the " Haven of Health," written by a phyfician named Cogan, and 
printed in 1,584, we are told : "When foure houres be paft after breake- 
faft, a man may fafely take his dinner, and the raoft convenient time 
for dinner is about eleven of the clocke before noone. The ufual time 
for dinner in the univerfities is at eleven, or elfe where about noon." 
In Beaumont and Fletcher, the hour of dinner was ftill eleven ; " I never 
come into my dining-room," fays Merrythought, in the " Knight of the 
Burning Peftle," "but at eleven and fix o'clock." "What hour is't, 
Lollis?" alks a character in the "Changeling," by their contemporary 
Middleton. " Towards eating-hour, fir." "Dinnertime? thou mean' ft 
twelve o'clock." And other writers at the beginning of the feventeenth 
century fpeak of twelve o'clock and feven as the hours of dinner and 
fupper. This continued to be the ufual hour of dinner at the clofe of the 
fame century. 

During the reign of Elizabeth, and afterwards, perfons of both fexes 
appear to have broken their faft in the fame fubftantial manner as was 
obferved by the Percies at the beginning of the century, and as defcribed 
in a previous chapter ; yet, though generally but four hours interpofed 
between this and the hour of dinner, people feem to have thought it 
neceffary to take a fmall luncheon in the interval, which, no doubt from 
its confifling chiefly in drinking, was called a lever. "At ten," fays a 
character in one of Middleton's plays, " we drink, that's mouth-hour ; at 
eleven, lay about us for victuals, that's hand-hour 5 at twelve, go to 
dinner, that's eating-hour." "Your gallants," fays Appetitus, in the old 
play of " Lingua," "never fup, breakfaft, nor bever without me." 

The dinner was the largefl and raoft ceremonious meal of the day. 
The hearty character of this meal is remarked by a foreign traveller in 
England, who publifhed his"Memoires et Obfervations" in French in 
1698. " Les Anglois," he tells us, " mangent beaucoup a diner ; ils man- 
gent a reprifes, et remplilfent le fac. Leur fouper eft leger. Gloutons a, 
midi, fort fobres au foir." In the fixteenth century, dinner ftill began 
with the fame ceremonious warning of hands as formerly ; and there was 
confiderable oftentation in the ewers and bafins ufed for this purpofe. 

Our 



and Sentiments. 



457 




No. 28 S. A Bafin and Eiver, Sixteenth Century 



Our cut No. 288 reprefents ornamental articles of this defcription, of the 
fixteenth century, taken from an engraving in Whitney's "Emblems," printed 
in 1586. This cuftom was rendered more neceffary by the circumftance 
that at table people of all ranks ufed 
their fingers for the purpofes to which 
we now apply a fork. This article 
was not ufed in England for the 
purpofe to which it is now applied, 
until the reign of James I. It is true 
that we have inftances of forks even 
fo far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon 
period, but they are often found 
coupled with lpoons, and on con- 
fidering all the circumftances, I am led to the conviction that they were 
in no infrance ufed for feeding, but merely for ferving, as we ftill ferve 
falad and other articles, taking them out of bafin or dim with a fork and 
fpoon. In fa£t, to thofe who have not been taught the ufe of it, a fork 
muft neceffarily be a very awkward and inconvenient inftrument. We 
know that the ufe of forks came from Italy, the country to which Eng- 
land owed many of the new fafhions of the beginning of the feventee^ith 
century. It is curious to read Coryat's account of the ufage of forks at 
table as he firft faw it in that country in the courfe of his travels. "I 
obferved," fays he, "a cuftome in all thofe Italian cities and townes 
through which I paffed, that is not ufed in any other country that I faw 
in my travels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Chriitendome 
doth ufe it, but only Italy. The Italian, and alio moil ftrangers that are 
commorant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales ufe a little forke, when 
they cut their meate. For while with their knife which they hold in 
one hande they cut the meat out of the diih, they fallen their forke, 
which they hold in their other hande, upon the fame dill), lb that what- 
soever he be that fitting in the company of any others at meale, mould 
unadvifedly touch the dilh of meate with his fingers, from which all at 
the table do cut, he will give occafion of offence unto the company . as 
having tranfgreifed the lawes of good manners, infomuch that lor his error 

.3 n he 



45 8 Hijiory of "Domeftic Manners 

he fliall be at the leaft brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. This 
forme of feeding I underftand is generally ufed in all places of Italy, their 
forkes being for the moft part made of yron or fteele, and fome of filver, 
but thofe' are ufed only by gentlemen. The reafon of this their curiofity 
is, becaufe the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his diih 
touched with fingers, feeing all men's fingers are not alike cleane. Here- 
upon I myfelf thought good to imitate the Italian falhion by this forked 
cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but alfo in Germany, and 
oftentimes in England fince I came home ; being once quipped for that 
frequent uiing of my forke by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar 
friend of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whittaker, who in his merry humour 
doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for ufing a forke at feeding, 
but for no other caufe." Furcifer, in Latin, it need hardly be obferved, 
meant literally one who carries a fork, but its proper fignification was, a 
villain who deferves the gallows. 

The ufage of forks thus introduced into England, appears foon to have 
become common. It is alluded to more than once in Beaumont and 
Fletcher, and in Ben Jonfon, but always as a foreign falhion. In JonfonV 
comedy of "The Devil is an Afs," we have the following dialogue : — 

Meerc. Have I dejerv'd this from you t<zvo,for all 
My pains at court to get you each a patent ? 

Gilt. For ivhat ? 

Meerc. /Upon tny pro)eEl o 1 the forks. 

Sie. Forks ? imat be they f 

Meej*. The_lgvdable ufe of forks, 
Brough\htto_£uJlom here, as they are in Italy, 
To th'' f paring o' napkins. 

In fa6l the new invention rendered the waihing of hands no longer fo 
neceffary as before, and though it was ftill continued as a polite form 
before fitting down to dinner, the practice of waihing the hands after 
dinner appears to have been entirely difcontinued. 

Our cut No. 289, taken from the Englifh edition of the Janua Lin- 
guarum of Comenius, reprefents the forms of dining in England under 
the Protectorate. It will be beft defcribed by the text which accom- 
panies it in the book, and in which each particular obje6t is mentioned. 

" When 



and Sentiments. 



459 



"When a feaft is made ready," we are told, " the table is covered with a 
carpet and a table-cloth by the waiters, who befides lay the trenchers, 
fpoons, knives, with little forks, table napkins, bread, with a faltfellar. 
MelTes are brought in platters, a pie in a plate. The guefts being brought 




No. 289. A. Dinner Party in the Seventeenth Century. 



in by the hoft, wafh their hands, out of a laver or ewer, over a hand-baiin, 
or bowl, and wipe them with a hand-towel ; then they tit at the table on 
chairs. The carver breaketh up the good cheer, and divideth ic. Sauces 
are fet amongft rofte-meat in fawfers. The butler filleth ftrong wine out 
of a crufe, or wine-pot, or flagon, into cups, or glalfes, which Hand on a 
cup-board, and he reacheth them to the mailer of the feaft, who drinketh 
to his guefts." /It will be obferved that one falt-cellar is here placed in 
the middle of the table. This was the ufual cuftom ; and, as one long 
table had been fubftituted for the feveral tables formerly ftanding in the 
hall, the falt-cellar was confidered to divide the table into two diftinct 
parts, guefts of more diftin&ion being placed above the fait, while the 
places below the fait were afligncd to inferiors and dependants. This 
ufage is often alluded to in the old dramatills. Thus, in Ben Jonfon, it 
is faid of a man who treats his inferiors with (corn, "he never thinks 
below the fait," i.e., he never exchanges civilities with thofe who lit at 

the 



460 



Hijiory of Dome/lie Manners 



the lower end of the table. And in a contemporary writer, it is defcribed 
as a mark of prefumption in an inferior member of the houfehold " to lit 
above the fait." Our cut No. 290, taken from an engraving by the 
French artiff, Abraham Boffe, publilhed in 1633, reprefents one of the 




No. 290. Laying out the Dinner-table, 1633. 

firft Heps in the laying out of the dinner-table. The plates, it will be 
feen, are laid, and the falt-cellar is duly placed in the middle of the table. 
The fervant is now placing the napkins — 

The pages fpred a table out of hand, 

And brought forth nap'ry rich, and plate more rich. — Harrington's Ariosto, Ixii. 71. 

The earlier half of the flxteenth century was the period when the 
pageantry of feafting was carried to its greateft degree of fplendour. In 
the houfes of the noble and wealthy, the dinner itfelf was laid out with 
great pomp, was almoft always accompanied with muflc, and was not 
unfrequently interrupted with dances, mummings, and mafquerades. A 
picfure of a grand feaft carried on in this manner is given in one of the 
ilhrftrations to the German work on the exploits of the emperor Maxi- 
milian, publilhed at the time under the title of "Der Weifs Kunig." 
An abridged copy of this engraving is given in our cut No. 291. The 
table profufely furnilhed, the rich difplay of plate on the cupboards, the 
band in front, and the mummers entering the hall, are all flrikingly cha- 

racleriftic 



and Sentiments. 



461 



raderillic of the age. The dreffer, or cupboard, was now one of the 
great means of difplay among the higher orders of fociety, who inverted 
vaft wealth in its furniture, confifting of veffels made of the precious 




No. 29 1 . Mummers at a Fcaji. 



metals and of cryftal, fometimes fet with precious Hones, rind often 
adorned with the moil beautiful fculpture, or moulded into lingular or 
elaborate forms. So much attention was given to the arrangement of 

the 



462 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



the plate on the dreffer, and to the ceremonies attending it, that it was 
made a point of etiquette how many Heps, or gradations, on which the 
rows of plate were raifed one above another, members of each particular 
rank of fociety might have on their cupboards. Thus, a prince of royal 
blood only might have five fteps to his cupboard; four were allowed to 
nobles of the higheft rank, three to nobles under that of duke, two to 
knights-bannerets, and one to perfons who were merely of gentle blood. 
Thefe rules, however, were probably not univerfally obeyed. It was 
the duty of the butler to have charge of the plate in the hall, and his 
ftation there was ufually at the fide of the cupboard, as in the engraving 
taken from "Der Weifs Kunig" (No. 291). Comparatively few examples 
of the domeftic plate of an early period have furvived the revolutions of 
fo many ages, during which they were often melted for the metal, and 
thofe which remain are chiefly in the poffeflion of corporations or public 
bodies ; but feveral fine collections of the ornamental plate of the fixteenth 
and feventeenth centuries have been made, and among thefe one of the 
beft and molt interefting is that of the late lord Londefborough, now in 
the poffeflion of lady Londefborough.* 

A dinner fcene on a fmaller fcale is reprefented in our next cut 
(No. 292), copied from one in which Albert Durer reprefents Herodias 
dancing and performing before Herod at his folitary meal. This 
pageantry at dinner was fucceeded, and apparently foon fuperfeded, in 
the higher fociety by mafques after dinner, which continued to be very 
fafhionable until the breaking out of the civil commotions in the middle 
of the feventeenth century. During the period of the Protectorate and 
the Commonwealth, the forms of eating and drinking were much fim- 



* The reader who wishes for further information on the ornamental plate of the 
middle ages, and especially of the age of the Renaissance and succeeding period, 
may consult with advantage lord LondesborougfTs handsome and valuable volume, 
the " Miscellanea Graphica," and the "Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of the 
Collection of Antique Stiver Plate formed by Albert, lord Londesborough, now 
the property of lady Londesborough," printed by her ladyship for private distribu- 
tion ; the latter of which contains no less than a hundred and fourteen examples 
of ornamental plate excellently engraved by Mr. Fairholt, among which are several 
fine examples of the nef, or ship. 

plifled, 



and Sentiments. 



463 



plified, and all that expenfive oftentation, which had arifen in the high 
times of feudal power, and had become burthenfome to the ariflocracy 
after it had been weakened by the reigns of the Tudors, difappeared. 

The regular order of fervice at dinner feems to have been ftill three 
courfes, each confifting of a number and variety of difhes, according to 




No. 292. Hcrodias dancing before Herod. 

the richneis of the entertainment. To judge from the early cookery 
books, which have been defcribed in a former chapter, our anceftors, 
previous to the fixteenth century, in the better claries of focietv, were not 
in the habit of placing fubfhntial joints on the table, but intlead of them 
had a great variety of made difhes, a coniiderable proportion of which 
were eaten with a fpoon. At the tables of the great, there was a large 

attendance 



4 6 4 



Hijlory of Domefiic Manners 



attendance of fervants, and the guefts were counted off not, as before, in 
couples, but in fours, each four being confidered as one party, under the 
title of a mefs, and probably having a difli among them, and ferved by 
one attendant. This cuftom is often alluded to in the dramatifts, and it 
is hardly neceffary to obferve that it was the origin of our modern term 
in the army. The plate, as well as the porcelain and earthenware, ufed 
at table during the greater part of this period, was fo richly diverfified, 
that it would require a volume to defcribe it, nor would it be eafy to pick 
out a fmall number of examples that might illuflrate the whole. Our 




No. 293. Knife-cafe 



cut No. 293 reprefents a peculiar article of this period, which is not unde- 
ferving of remark, two knife-cafes, made of leather, ftamped and gilt. 

From what has been faid, it will be feen that our popular faying of 
" the roaff. beef of old England," is not fo literally true as we are 
accuftomed to fuppofe. While, however, the flyle of living we have 
been defcribing prevailed generally among the higher ranks and the 
richer portion of the middle claffes, particularly in towns, that of the lefs 
affluent claffes remained fimple and even fcanty, and a large portion of 
the population of the country probably indulged in flefh meat only at 
intervals, or on occafions when they received it in their lord's kitchen or 

hall. 



and Sentiments. 



465 




hall. A few plain jugs, fuch as thofe reprefented in our cut No. 294, 
taken from a wooden fculptnre in the church of Kirby Thorpe, in 
Yorklhire, with platters or trenchers in pewter or wood, formed the 
whole table fervice of the inferior dalles. It was the revolution in the 
middle of the feventeenth century which 
firft aboliihed this extravagant orientation, 
and brought into fafhion a plainer table and 
more fubftantial meats. A foreigner, who 
had been much in England in the latter 
part of the feventeenth century, and pub- 
lished his obfervations in French at the Hague 
in 1698, tells us that the Englilh of that 
period were great eaters of meat — " I have 
heard," fays he, " of many people in England 
who have never eaten bread, and ordinarily 
they eat very little ; they nibble fometimes a 
little bit, while they eat flefh by gre3t mouth - 
fills. Generally fpeaking, the tables are not 
ferved with delicacy in England. There are fome great lords who have 
French and Englilh cooks, and where you are ferved much in the French 
falhion ; but among perfons of the middle condition of which I am fpeak- 
ing, they have ten or twelve forts of common meat, which infallibly come 
round again in their turns at different times, and of two difhes of which 
their dinner is compofed, as for inftance, a pudding, and a piece of roaft 
beef. Sometimes they will have a piece boiled, and then it has always 
lain in fait fome days, and is flanked all round with five or fix mounds of 
cabbage, carrots, turnips, or fome other herbs or roots, feafoned with fall and 
pepper, with melted butter poured over them. At other times they will 
have a leg of mutton, roafted or boiled, and accompanied with the fame 
delicacies; poultry, fucking pigs, tripe, and beef tongues, rabbits, pigeons, 
all well foaked with butler, without bacon. Two of thele dilhes, always 
ferved one after the other, make the ordinary dinner of a good gentlt 
man, or of a good burgher. When they have boiled meal, there is 
fometimes fomebody who takes a fancy to broth, which confifls of the 

3 o water 



No. 294. Drinking Vcjfch. 



466 Hijlory of ' Domejiic Manners 

water in which the meat has been boiled, mixed with a little oatmeal, 
with fome leaves of thyme, or fage, or other fuch fmall herbs. The 
pudding is a thing which it would be difficult to defcribe, on account of 
the diversity of forts. Flour, milk, eggs, butter, fugar, fat, marrow, 
rafins, &c. &c, are the more common ingredients of a pudding. It is 
baked in an oven ; or boiled with the meat ; or cooked in fifty other 
fafhions. And they are grateful for the invention of puddings, for it is a 
manna to everybody's tafte, and a better manna than that of the deflert, 
inafmuch as they are never tired of it. Oh ! what an excellent thing is 
an Englilh pudding ! To come in pudding time, is a proverbial phrafe, 
meaning, to come at the happiefl moment in the world. Make a 
pudding for an Engliihman, and you will regale him be he where he will. 
Their deffert needs no mention, for it confifts only of a bit of cheefe. 
Fruit is only found at the houfes of great people, and only among few of 
them." The phrafe, "to come in pudding time," occurs as early as the 
beginning of the feventeenth century. 

The abfence of the deflert at the Englilh table, of which the writer 
juft quoted complains, arofe from the abandonment in the middle of the 
feventeenth century of an old cuftom. In the earlier part of that century, 
and in the century previous, when the company rofe from the dinner- 
table, they proceeded to what was then called the lanquet, which was 
held in another apartment, and often in an arbour in the garden, or, as it 
was called, the garden-houfe. The lanquet of an earlier period, the 
fifteenth century, was, as we have already feen, a meal after fupper. In 
Maflinger's play of the " City Madam," a fumptuous dinner is defcribed 
as follows : — 

The dijbes ivere raifed one upon another, 

As ivoodmongers do billets, for the fir ft, 

The Jecond, and third courfe ; and moft of the Jhops 

Of the beft confetlioners in London ranfacFd 

To furnifh out a banquet. 

In another of Maflinger's dramas, one of the characters fays : — 

We'll dine in the great room, but let the mufick 
And banquet be prepared here. 



and Sentiments. 467 



It appears, therefore, that the banquet was often accompanied with 
malic. At the banquet the choice wines were brought forth, and the 
table was covered with paftry and fweetmeats, of which our forefathers at 
this period appear to have been extremely fond. A ufual article at the 
banquet was marchpanes, or bifcuits made of fugar and almonds, in 
different fanciful forms, fuch as men, animals, houfes, &c. There was 
generally one at leafl in the form of a cattle, which the ladies and gentle- 
men were to batter to pieces in frolic, by attacking it with fugar-plums. 
Taylor, the water-poet, calls them — 

Cafiles for ladies, and for carpet knights, 
Unmercifully fpoitd at feajling fights, 
Where battering bullets are fine fugred plums. 

On feftive occasions, and among people who loved to pafs their time at 
table, the regular banquet feems to have been followed by a fecond, or, 
as it was called, a rere-banquet. Thefe rere-banquets are mentioned by 
the later Elizabethan writers, generally as extravagances, and fometimes 
with the epithet of "late," fo that perhaps they took the place of the 
foberer fupper. People are fpoken of as taking " fomewhat plentifully of 
wine" at thefe rere-banquets. The rere-fupper was flill in ufe, and appears 
alfo to have been a meal diftinguilhed by its profufion both in eating and 
drinking. It was from the rere-fupper that the roaring-boys, and other 
wild gallants of the earlier part of the feventeenth century, lallied forth 
to create noife and riot in the flreets. 

One of the great chara&eriftics of the dinner-table at this period was 
the formality of drinking, especially that of drinking healths, lb much 
cried down by the Puritans. This formality was enforced with great 
ftriclnefs and ceremony. It was not exactly the modern practice of giving 
a toaft, but each perfon in turn rofe, named fome one to whom he indi- 
vidually drank (not one of the perfons prefent), and emptied his cup. 
"He that begins the health," we are told in a little book publilhed in 
1623, "firft, uncovering his head, he takes a full cup in his hand, and 
fetting his countenance with a grave afpett, he craws lor audience ; 
filence being once obtained, lie begins to breathe out the name, pcr- 

advenluiv. 



468 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

adventure, of fome honourable perfonage, whofe health is drunk to, and 
he that pledges rauft likewife off with his cap, kits his fingers, and bow 
himfelf in fign of a reverent acceptance. When the leader fees his 
follower thus prepared, he fups up his broth, turns the bottom of the cup 
upward, and, in orientation of his dexterity, gives the cup a phillip to 
make it cry twango. And thus the firft fcene is acfed. The cup being 
newly replenifhed to the breadth of a hair, he that is the pledger muft 
now begin his part, and thus it goes round throughout the whole com- 
pany." In order to afcertain that each perfon had fairly drunk off his 
cup, in turning it up he was to pour all that remained in it on his nail, 
and if there were too much to remain as a drop on the nail without 
running off, he was made to drink his cup full again. This was termed 
drinking on the nail, for which convivialifts invented a mock Latin phrafe, 
and called it drinking^per nagulum, or fuper-naculum. 

This cuftora of pledging in drinking was as old as the times of the 
Anglo-Saxons, when it exifted in the "waes heil" and " drinc heil," 
commemorated in the ftory of the Britifh Vortigern and the Saxon 
Rowena, and it is alluded to in feveral ballads of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries, as in that of "King Edward and the Shepherd," 
where the man who drinks pledges his companion with the word "paffe- 
lodion," and the other replies by " berafrynde," and in that of "The 
Kyng and the Hermyt," where the words of pledging and reply are 
" fufty bandyas," and "ftryke pautnere." Both thefe ballads are printed 
in Hartlhorne's "Ancient Metrical Tales." The drinking of the healths 
of abfent individuals appears to have been introduced at a later period, 
and was carried to its greateft degree of extravagance on the continent. 
The perfon whofe health a man gave was ufually expected to be his 
miftrefsj and in France he was expected, in doing this, to drink as many 
times his glafs or cup full of wine as there were letters in her name. 
Thus, in Ronfard's " Bacchanales," the gallant drinks nine times to his 
miftrefs Caffandre, becaufe there were nine letters in her name : — 

Neuffoh, au nom de CaJJatidre, 

Je -vols prendre 
Neuffois du <vin du Jlacon ; 

Affin 



and Sentiments. 469 



■dffi'i de neuffois le bolre 

En memoire 
Des neuf left res de Jon nom. 

And a lefs celebrated poet, of a rather later date, Guillaume Colletet, in 
a piece entitled " Le Trebuchement de l'lvrongne," printed at Paris 
in 1627, introduces one of his perfonages drinking fix times to his miftrefs, 
becaufe her name was Cloris : — 

Six fois je rnen -vas bo'ire au beau nom de Cloris, 
Cloris, lefeul dejir de ma chajle penje'e. 

The manner of pledging at table, as it ftill exilted in England, is 
delcribed rather ludicroufly in the "Memoires d'Angleterre," of the year 
1698, already quoted. "While in France," the author fays, " the cuftom 
of drinking healths is almolt abolilhed among people of any diftincYion, as 
being equally importunate and ridiculous, it exifts here in all its ancient 
force. To drink at table, without drinking to the health of fome one in 
efpecial, among ordinary people, would be confidered as drinking on the 
fly, and as an act of incivility. There are in this proceeding two prin- 
cipal and lingular grimaces, which are univerfally obferved among people 
of all orders and all forts. It is, that the perfon to whofe health another 
drinks, if he be of inferior condition, or even equal, to that of him who 
drinks, muft remain as inactive as a flatue while the drinker drinks. It", 
for inftance, he is in the act of taking fomething from a dilh, he mull 
filddenly flop, return his fork or (boon to its place, and wait, without 
ftirring more than a ftone, until the other has drunk ; after which, the 
fecond grimace is to make him an inclinabo, at the rilk of dipping his 
perriwig in the gravy in his plate. I confefs that, when a foreigner tirtl 
fees thefe manners, he thinks them laughable. Nothing appears fo droll 
as to fee a man who is in the a<5t of chewing a morfel which he has in his 
mouth, of cutting his bread, of wiping his mouth, or of doing anything 
elfe, who fuddenly takes a ferious air, when a perfon of fome refpectability 
drinks to his health, looks fixedly at this perfon, and becomes as motion- 
lefs as if a univerfal paralylis had feized him, or he had been ftruck by a 
thunderbolt. It is true that, as good manners abfolutely demand this 

lvlpeetful 



470 Hiftory of Dome ft ic Manners 

refpeclful immobility in the patient, it requires alio a little circumfpecYion 
in the agent. When any one will drink to the health of another, he muft 
fix his eye upon him for a moment, and give him the time, if it be 
poflible, to fwallow his morfel." It is hardly neceffary to obferve that 
this cuftom is the origin of our modern practice of " taking wine" with 
each other at table, which is now alfo becoming obfolete. 



and Sentiments. 



47 1 



CHAPTER XXII. 

HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE. THE PARLOUR. THE CHAMBER. 

AS focial peace and fecurity became more eftablilhed in the country, 
- people began to be more lavilh in all the articles of houfehold 
furniture, which thus became much more numerous during the period of 
which we are now treating. It alfo went through its fafhions and its 
changes, but in the progrefs of thefe changes it became lefs ponderous 
and more elegant. Until the middle of the fixteenth century, and 
perhaps later in fome parts of the illand, where focial progrefs was flower, 
the old arrangements of a board laid upon treftles for a table ftill pre- 
vailed, though it was gradually difappearing j and, although the term of 
"laying" the board in a literal fenfe was no longer applicable, it has 
continued to be ufed figuratively, even to our own times. Richard 




No. 295. Table of Sixteenth Ct 



Kanam, of Soham, in the county of Cambridge, whole will was pros 
fo late as the 12th of April, 1570, left, among other houfehold rurnitu 
"one table with a payer of treflels, and a thicke tonne." The full fl 



472 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



in the change from tables of this kind appears to have been to fix the 
treffles to the board, thus making it a permanent table. The whole was 
flrengthened by a bar running from treffle to treffle, and ornamental 
wood-work was afterwards fubftituted in place of the treffles. A rather 
good example of a table of this defcription is given in the cut on the 
preceding page (No. 295), taken from that well-known publication, the 
" Stultifera Navis" of Sebaftian Brandt. This, however, was a clumfy 
conftrucfion, and it foon gave way to the table with legs, the latter 
being ufually turned on the lathe, and fometimes richly carved. This 
carving went out of ufe in the unoftentatious days of the Commonwealth 
and the Protectorate, to make way for plain table legs, and it never 
quite recovered its place. 

We have feen already that in the latter part of the previous century, 
in the chairs and ftools, the joinery work of Flanders was taking the place 




No. 296. Henry VIIVs Chair. 

of the older rude and clumfy feats. This tafte ftill prevailed in the 
earlier half of the fixteenth century, and a large proportion of the 
furniture ufed in this country, as well as of the earthenware and other 

houfehold 



and Sentiments. 



473 



houfehold implements, during the greater part of that century, were 
imported from Flanders and the Netherlands. Hence, in the abfence of 
engravings at home, we are led to look at the works of the Flemifh and 
German artifls for illuftrations of domeftic manners at this period. The 
feats of the defcription juft mentioned were termed joint (or joined) 
ftools or chairs. A rather fine example of a chair of this work, which is, 
as was often the cafe, three-cornered, is preferred in the Alhmolean 
Mufeum at Oxford, where it is reported to have been the chair of 
Henry VIII., on what authority I know not. It is reprefented in our 
cut No. 296. Thefe "joined" chairs and ftools were laid afide for 
furniture of a more elegant form, which was ufed during the reign of 
Elizabeth and her immediate fucceflbrs, and of which examples are io 
common that it is hardly neceflary 
to give one here. This fafhion appears 
to have been brought from France. 
An example of rather peculiar ftyle 
is given in our cut No. 297, taken 
from a picture executed in 1587, repre- 
fenting Louis de Gonzagues, duke of 
Nivernois. 

Hitherto the cufhions were merely 
adjuncts to the chairs, but by another 
advance in convenience the culhion 
was foon made as a part of the chair 
or ftool, which at the fame time be- 
came fimpler in form again. Our cut 
No. 298, taken from one of the prints 
of Abraham Boffe, dated in 1633, 

reprefents the general character of the chairs and ftools uled in fn 
at that date, as they are drawn in the works of this art ill, 
alio the manner in which they were arranged round a room \ 
not in life. On the let't appears the end of a culhioned bench, which 
was generally of the length of two or three (iools, and appears as a 
common article of furniture. Among other articles of furniture DOW 

3 p introduced 




mw 



ince 

and 
hen 



474 



Hifiory of Domeftic Manners 



introduced was the couch, or, as we ihould call it, the fofa. This was 
called, in the age of Shakefpeare, a day-bed, and appears to have been in 
fome difcredit, as an article indicating excefs of luxury. Large cup- 
boards, ufually termed court-cupboards, and often very richly carved, were 




No. 298. Stools and Chairs of the age of Charles I. 

now in general ufe, for containing, under lock and key, the plate and 
other valuables. In allufion to the carvings on thefe cupboards, which 
ufually confifted of faces more or lefs grotefque, and not very artiftically 
executed, Corbet, in his " Iter Boreale," fpeaks of a perfon— 



With a lean vifage, like 
On a court-cupboard. 



'dfa< 



The fixteenth century was eipecially the age of tapeftries, and no 
gentleman could confider his rooms furniftied if they wanted thefe 
important adjuncts. They were now elaborately worked into great 
hiftorical pictures, facred or profane, or mythological or other fubjecfs, to 
fuit the varieties of taftes. Sir John Elyot, in his " Governor," reminds 
his readers that " femblable decking oughte to bee in the houfe of a 
noblemanne, or man of honoure 5 I meane concerning ornaments of hall 
and chambers in arras, painted tables, and images concernynge hiftoiyes, 
wherein is reprefented fome monument of vertue moil cunningly," &c. 

At 



and Sentiments. 



475 



At the commencement of the feventeenth century this practice was 
already beginning to go out of falhion, and it was not long afterwards 
that it was entirely laid alide : and the walls were again covered with 
panels, or painted or whitewashed, and adorned with pictures. In our 
laft cut, of the date of 1633, we fee the walls thus decorated with 
paintings. 

The rapid focial revolution which was now going on, gradually pro- 
duced changes in moft of the articles of domeftic economy. Thus, the 
old fpiked candleftick was early in the 
century fuperfeded by the modern 
focket candleftick. The chandelier 
reprefented in our cut No. 299, taken 
from one of Albert Durer's prints of 
the Life of the Virgin, publifhed in 
1509, in its fpikes for the candles 
and its other characleriftics, belongs 
to a ruder and earlier ftyle of houfe- 
hold furniture, and has nothing in 
common with the rich chandeliers 
which now began to be ufed. 

The parlour appears in the fix- 
teenth century to have been a room 
the particular ufe of which was in 
a ftate of tranfition. Subfequently, 
as domeftic life affumed greater privacy than when people lived publicly 
in the hall, the parlour became the living room ; but in the fixteenth 
century, though in London it was already ufed as the dining-room, in 
the country it appears to have been confidered as a fort of amalgamation 
of a ftore-room and a bedroom. This is bell underftood from the 
different inventories of its furniture which have been preferred. In 
1558, the parlour of Robert Hyndmer, re&or of Sedgeficld, in the county 
of Durham, contained — "a table with a joined frame, two forms, and a 
carpet; carved cupboards; a plain cupboard; nine joined ftoolsj hangings 
of tapefhyj and a turned chair." In the parlour at Hilton Calilc, m the 

fame 




No. 299. 



A Chandelier of the Sixteenth 
Century. 



476 Hi ft or y of Domejiic Manners 

fame county, in 1559, there were — "one iron chimney, two tables, one 
counter, two chairs, one cupboard, fix forms, two old carpets, and three 
old hangings." In 1564, Margaret Cottom, a widow of Gatefhead, had 
in her parlour — " one inner bed of wainfcot, a ftand, a bed, a preffer of 
wainfcot, three chefts, a Dantzic coffer ;" a confiderable quantity of linen 
and cloth of different kinds, and for different purpofes ; " tallow candles, 
and wooden difhes, a feather bed, a bolfter, and a cod (pillow), two cover- 
lets, two happgings (coverlets of a coarfer kind), three blankets, three 
cods (pillows), with an old mattrefs ; five cufhions, a fleel cap, and a 
covering; a tin bottle, a cap-cafe with a lock." In the houfe of William 
Dalton, a wealthy merchant of Durham in 1556, the parlour muft have 
been very roomy indeed to contain all the "houfehold fluff " which it 
holds in the inventory, namely, " a chimney, with a pair of tongs ; a bed- 
ftead clofe made ; a feather bed, a pair of fheets, a covering of apparels, 
an 'ovefe' bed, a covering wrought of filk; a cod (pillow), and a pillow- 
bere ; a trundle-bed, a feather bed, a twilt (quilt), a happing (coverlet), 
and a bolfter ; a ftand-bed, a feather-bed, a mattrefs, a pair of blankets, a 
red covering, a bolfter, and curtains ; eight cods, and eight pillow-beres ; 
feven pair of linen fheets ; eight pair of ftrakin (a fort of kerfey) fheets ; 
fix pair of harden (hempen) fheets; thirteen yards of diaper tabling; 
ten yards and a half of table-cloth ; twenty-one yards of towelling ; four 
hand towels ; two dozen napkins ; five pillow-beres ; two head fheets ; 
a pair of blankets ; two 'overfe' beds, and three curtains; a cupboard; 
a table, with a carpet ; a counter, with a carpet ; a Dantzic cheft ; a bond 
cheft ; a bond coffer ; an ambry ; a long fettle, and a chair ; three buffet 
ftools; a little ftool ; two forms; red hangings; a painted cloth; three 
chefts ; a ftand-bed, a pair of blankets, two fheets, a covering, and two 
cods; an 'ambre call.'" In 1567, the parlour at Beaumont Hill, a 
gentleman's houfe in the north, contained the following furniture : — 
" One trundle bed, with a feather bed ; two coverlets, a bolfter, two 
blankets, two carpet table cloths, two coverlets, one preffer, a little table, 
one cheft, three chairs, and three forms." In other inventories, down 
to the end of the century, we find the parlour continuing to be ftored 
in this indifcriminate manner. 

This 



and Sentiments. 



Ml 



This period alfo differs from former periods in the much greater 
number of beds, and greater abundance of bed-furniture, we find in the 
houfes. We have often feveral beds in one chamber. Few of the prin- 
cipal bedrooms had lefs than two beds. The form of the bedftead was 
now almoft univerfally that with four pofts. Still in the engravings of 
the fixteenth century, we find the old couch-bed reprefented. Such 
appears to be the bed in our cut No. 300, taken from Whitney's " Em- 
blems," an Engliih book printed at Leyden in 1586. We have here 




No. 300. A Dying Man and his Treaji 



another, and rather a late example, of the manner in which money was 
hoarded up in chefts in the chambers. The couch-bed is hill more 
diftincfly lhown in our cut No. 301, taken from Albert Durer's print of 
St. Jerome, dated in i$ii. This print is remarkable for its detail of the 
furniture of a bed-chamber, and especially for the manner in which the 
various fmaller articles are arranged and fufpended to the walls. Not 
the leaft remarkable of thefe articles is the lingular combination of a 
clock and an hour glafs, which is placed againft the wall as a time-piece. 
This feems, however, to have been not uncommon. A time-pine of the 
fame kind is reprefented in our cut No. 302, which is taken from a print 
of St. Jerome at prayer, by Hans Springen Kelle, without date, but 

evidently 



47 8 



Hijiory of Domejiic Manners 



evidently belonging to the earlier half of the fixteenth century. The 




No. 301. A Bed-chamber and its Furniture. 

method of fufpending or attaching to the walls the fmaller articles in 
common ufe, fuch as fcilfors, brumes, pens, 
papers, &c, is here the fame as in the 
former. Our next cut (No. 303), from a 
print by Aldegraver, dated in 1553, repre- 
fents evidently a large four-poft bedftead, 
which is remarkable for its full and flow- 
ing curtains. The plate appears here to 
be kept in the bed-chamber. Cherts, cup- 
boards, preffes, &c, become now very 
numerous in the bedrooms, and we begin 
No. 302. A Time-piece, & e . to meet with tables and chairs more fre- 
quently. In 1567, the principal chamber in the houfe of Mrs. Elizabeth 

Hutton, 




and Sentiments. 



479 



Hutton, at Hunwick, contained the following articles : — " In napery, in 
linen (heets, fixteen pair 3 certain old harden {hempen) iheets, and fix- 
teen pillowberes ; two Dantzic chefts, a little cheft bound with iron, a 
candle chefi, and another old chefi 3 a prefs with two floors and five 
doors ; a folding table, feven little cufhions, and two long cuihions of 
crool {a fort of fine worjied) wrought with the needle, and a carpet cloth 




No. 303. A Bed of the Sixteenth Century. 

that is in working with crools for the lame ; iix feather beds, with fix 
bolfters, and a coarfe feather-bed tick ; eight mattreifes, and nine bolficrs ; 
twelve pillows, twelve pair of blankets, and l\\ happings; twenty cover- 
lets, three coverings for beds of tapefiry, and two of dornix (Tournay) j 
a carpet cloth of tapefiry work, five yards long, and a quarter deep; live 
ftanding beds, with cords; two tillers with curtains of law, ami two 
tefters with curtains of crool." In the principal chamber in die houfe of 

la.lv 



4 8o 



Hiftory of Domeftic Manners 



lady Catherine Hedworth, in 1568, the following furniture is enume- 
rated : — " One truffing bed, one feather bed, one pair of blankets, one 
pair of fheets, one bolfter, one pillow with a houfewife's covering, four 
pillows, two Flanders chefts, one almeiy, two cupboards, three coffers, 
two cupboard ftools, three buffet forms, one little buffet flool, two little 
coffers, five mugs, three old cufhions." The principal chamber of Thomas 
Sparke, fuffragan bilhop of Berwick, whofe goods were appraifed in 1,572, 
was furnifhed with the following articles : — " A ftand-bed, with a teftron 
of red faye and fringe, and a truckle-bed ; a Cypres cheft, a Flanders 
cheft, a defk, three buffet ftools ; the faid chamber hung with red faye." 
At Crook Hall, in the fuburbs of Durham, in 1577, the principal chamber 




No. 304. A Bed of the Seventeenth Century. 



contained three beds ; another chamber contained four beds ; and a third 
two beds. Thefe lifts furnifh good illuftrations of the various prints from 
which we have already given fome tketches. 

Our cut No. 304 reprefents the ufual form of the bedftead in the 
feventeenth century, and the procefs of "making" the bed ; it is taken 
from a print by the French artift, Abraham Bofle, of the date 163 1. 

Another 



and Sentiments. 



481 



Another of his prints, of the fame date, has furniihed us with a (ketch of 
a bedroom party (cut No. 305), which is no unapt illuitration of dcmeftic 
manners in the feventeenth century. It reprefents a cuftom which pre- 
vailed efpecially in France. A woman, after childbirth, kept her room 
in Itate, and with great ceremony, and received there daily her female 
acquaintances, who paffed the afternoon in goflip. This practice, and 




No. 305. A Bedroom Party. 

efpecially the converfation which took place at it, were frequent fubjects 
of popular fatire, and formed the groundwork of one of the mod cele- 
brated books of the reign of Louis XIII., entitled " Les Caquets de 
l'Accouchee," firft publilhed in 1622. An edition of this curious fatire 
has been recently publilhed by M. Ed. Fournier, in the introduction to 
which, as well as in the text, the reader will find abundant information 
on this fubjeft. 



.3 « 



482 



Hifiory of Do?neftic Manners 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OCCUPATIONS OF THE LADIES.- 
OF ENGLISH SPORTS AT 
BATHS. THE ORDINARIES. - 



—GAMES AND ENJOYMENTS. ROUGHNESS 

THIS PERIOD. THE HOT-HOUSES, OR 

-DOMESTIC PETS. TREATMENT OF CHIL- 



DREN. METHODS OF LOCOMOTION.— CONCLUSION. 



DURING the period at which we are now arrived, almoft all the 
relations of domeftic life underwent a great change, and nothing 
hardly could produce a wider difference than that between the manners 
and fentiments of the reign of Henry VII., and thofe of Charles II. 
This was efpecially obfervable in the occupations of the female fex, which 
were becoming more and more frivolous. At the- earlier portion of the 
period referred to, women in general were confined clofely to their 
domeftic labours, in fpinning, weaving, embroidering, and other work of 

a fimilar kind. A hand-loom was 
almofl a neceflary article of furniture 
in a well regulated houfehold, and 
fpinning was fo univerfal an occu- 
pation, that we read fometimes of an 
apartment in the houfe fet apart for 
it — a family fpinning room. Even to 
this prefent day, in legal language, 
the only occupation acknowledged, 
as that of an unmarried woman, is 
that of a fpinfter. Our cut (No. 306) 
reprefents a party of ladies at their 
domeftic labours ; it is taken from 
Ifrael van Mechelin's print of "The Virgin Afcending the Steps of the 
Temple," where this domeftic fcene is introduced in a fide compartment. 

Two 




No. 306. Ladies at Work. 



and Sentiments. 



483 



Two are engaged at the diftafF, the old poetical emblem of the fex. 
Another is cutting out the cloth for working, with a pair of fhears of very 
antiquated form. The lhape of the three-cornered joined chair in this 
group is worthy of remark. The female in our cut No. 307 is alio feated 
in a chair of rather peculiar conftruction, though it has occurred before at 
an earlier period (cut No. 245, p. ,375), and we meet with it again in our 
next cut (No. 308). It is what was fometimes called a folding chair. 
This cut is taken from one of the illuftrations to the Englifh edition of 
Erafmus's " Praife of Folly," printed in 1676, but it is a copy of the 




No. 307. A Lady at the Loom. 

earlier originals. The great weaving eflablilhments in England appear to 
have commenced in the fixteenth century, with the Proteftant refugees 
from France and the Netherlands. 

The old domeftic games continued to be practifed in the middle and 
upper clafTes of fociety, although they were rather extensively fuperfeded 
by the pernicious rage for gambling which now prevailed throughout 
Englifh fociety. This practice had been extending itfelf ever fince the 
beginning of the fifteenth century, and had been accompanied with 
another evil pra&ice among the ladies, that of drinking. It need hardly 
be obferved that thefe two vices furnifhed conftant themes to the dramatifts 



484 Hi ft or y of Dome die Manners 



and fatirifts of the flxteenth and feventeenth centuries ; the example fet 
by the court under James I. caufed them to increafe greatly, and they 




No. 308. A Party of Ladies. 

rofe to the higher! pitch of extravagance under Charles II. Barclay'; 




No. 309. A Gamblers'' Difpute. 

Ship of Fools" (the early Englifh edition) has furnifhed us with the 

group 



and Sentiments, 



485 



group of female gamefters, reprefented in our cut No. 308. It will be 
feeo that the ladies are playing with cards and dice, and that the ale jug 
is introduced as an accompaniment. In fact we mult look upon it as a 
tavern party, and the round table, as far as we can judge, appears to be 
fixed in the ground. The fame book furnifhes us with an illultration 
(cut No. 309), in which two gamblers are quarrelling over a game at 
backgammon. A child is here the jug-bearer or guardian of the liquor. 




No. 310. A Party at Dice. 

Our cut No. 310 reprefents a gambling fcene of a rather later period, 
taken from Whitney's "Emblems," printed in 15865 dice are here the 
implements of play. 

A very curious piece of painted glafs, now in the pofleflion of Mr. 
Fairholt, of German manufacture, and forming part, apparently, of a 
feries illuftrative of the hiftory of the Prodigal Son, reprefents a party 
of gamblers, of the earlier part of the fixteenth century, in which 
they are playing with two dice. It is copied in our cut No. 311. The 
original bears the infcription, "Jan Van Haffell Tryngen Jin kausfrau," 
with a merchant's mark, and the date, 1532. Three dice, however, 
continued to be ufed long after this, and are, from time to time, alluded 
to during the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries. 

I have, in a former chapter, traced the hiftory of playing-cards down 
to the latter half of the fifteenth century. After that time, they are 

frequently 



486 Hiftory of Domefiic Manners 

frequently mentioned. They formed the common amufement in the 
courts of Scotland and England under the reigns of Henry VII. and 
James IV. ; and it is recorded that when the latter monarch paid his firft 




. A Gambling Party of the Sixteenth Century, 



vifit to his affianced bride, the young princefs Margaret of England, " he 
founde the quene playing at the cardes." 

In Germany at this time card-playing was carried to an extravagant 
degree, and it became an objecf of attack and fatire to the reformers 
among the clergy. Our cut No. 312 reprefents a German card-party in 
a tavern, taken from an early painted coffer in the Mufeum of Old 
German Art at Nuremberg. The defign of the cards is that of packs of 
fancifully ornamented cards made in Germany at the clofe of the fifteenth 
century. The German fatirifts of that age complain that the rage for 

gambling 



and Sentiments. 



487 



gambling had taken poifellion of all claffes of fociety, and levelled all 
ranks, ages, and fexes ; that the noble gambled with the commoner, and 
the clergy with the laity. Some of the clerical reformers declared that 
card-playing as well as dice was a deadly fin, and others complained 




No. 312. Cards early in the Sixteenth Century. 

that this love of gambling had caufed people to forget all honourable 
purfuits. 

A fimilar outcry was railed in our own country; and a few years later 
it arofe equally loud. A lhort anonymous poem on the ruin of the realm, 
belonging apparently to the earlier part of the reign of Henry VIII. 
(MS. Harl. No. 22^2, fol. 2^, v°), complains of the nobles and gentry: — 

Before thys tyme they lo-vyd for to jujfe, 

And in fhotynge chefely they fett titer myndc, 
And titer landys and pojfeflyons now fett they mofle, 

And at cardes and dyce ye may them ffynde. 

" Cardes and dyce" are from this time forward fpoken of as the greal 
blot on contemporary manners; and they feem for a long time to have 
driven mod other games out of ufe. Roy, in his remarkable fatire againfl 
cardinal Wolfey, complains that the bilhops themfelves were addicted to 
gambling:— 

To 



488 Hiflory of Dome flic Manners 



To play at the cardes and dyce 
Some of theym are no thynge nyce, 
Both at hajard and mom-chaunce. 

The rage for cards and dice prevailed equally in Scotland. Sir David 
Lindfay's popifh parfon, in i$3$, boafts of his Ikill in thefe games: — 

Thoch I preich noc/it, I can play at the caiche ; 
I wot there is nocht ane amang yoiv all 
Mair ferylie can play at the fute-ball ; 
A nd for the earth, the tabels, and the dyfe, 
A bo-ve all parfouns I may be'ir the pryfe. 

The fame celebrated writer, in a poem againft cardinal Beaton, reprefents 
that prelate as a great gambler : — 

In banketting, playing at earth and dyce, 
Into fie ivyjedome I ivas haldin ivyfe, 
And Jpairit nocht to play ivith king nor knicht 
Thre thoufand croivnes ofgolde upon ane night. 

Though gardening and horticulture in general, as arts, were under- 
going considerable improvement during this period, the garden itfelf 
appears to have been much more neglecled, except as far as it was the 
fcene of other paftimes. A bowling-green was the moil important part 
of the pleafure garden in the Sixteenth and feventeenth centuries ; and 
bowls, and exercifes of a fimilar character, were the favourite amufements 
of all clalfes. The gardens themfelves, which were apart from the houfe, 
and made more retired by lofty walls enclofing them, were ufually 
adorned with alcoves and fummer-houfes, or, as they were then more 
ufually termed, garden-houfes, but thefe were chiefly celebrated, efpe- 
cially in the feventeenth century, as places of intrigue. There are 
continual allufions to this ufage in the popular writers of the time. 
Thus, one of the perfonages in Beaumont and Fletcher's " Woman Hater" 
exclaims, " This is no garden-houfe : in my confeience fhe went forth 
with no dilhoneft intent." And, in the play of the "Mayor of Quinf- 
borough," — 

Poor foul, [he's entie'd forth by her own fex 
To be betrayed to man, ivho in fome garden-houfe, 
Or remote walk, taking his luftful time, 
Binds darknefs on her eyes, furprifes her. 



and Sentiments. 489 



A character in another old play, "The London Prodigal," feeking em- 
ployment of a rather equivocal character, lays, " Now God thank you, 
fweet lady, if you have any friend, or garden-houfe, where you may 
employ a poor gentleman as your friend, I am yours to command in all 
fecret fervice." 

Amid the gaiety which was fo efpecially characleriftic of this age, a 
fpirit of vulgar barbarity had arifen and fpread itfelf very widely, and the 
popular games moil pracdifed were in general coarfe and cruel. A foreign 
writer already quoted, but one who was evidently a very unprejudiced 
obferver, has left us fome rather amuhng remarks on this fubjecl which 
are worthy of being repeated. "The Englilh," he fays, "have games 
which are peculiar to them, or at leaf! which they affecd and prac- 
tife more than people do elfewhere. To fee cocks fight is a royal 
pleafure in England. Their combats of bulls and dogs, of bears and dogs, 
and fometimes of bulls and bears, are not combats to the lalt gafp, like 
thole of cocks. Everything that is called fighting is a delicious thing to 
an Englifhman. If two little boys quarrel in a ftreet, tbe paffers flop, 
make in a moment a ring round them, and encourage them to fettle it 
by blows of the fill. If it comes to fighting, each takes off his cravat and 
his jacket, and gives them in charge to one of the company ; then begin 
the blows of the fift, in the face if pollible, the blows of the foot on their 
lhins, the pulling of one another by the hair, &c. The one who lias 
knocked the other down, may give him one blow or two- when he is 
down, but no more, and every time the one who is down will rife, 
the other muft return to the combat as long as he pleafes. During 
the combat, the circle of fpeclators encourage the combatants to the 
great joy of their hearts, and never feparate them, fo long as things arc 
done according to rule. And thefe fpe&ators are not only other children, 
and flreet porters, but all forts of refpecdable people, fome of whom make 
their way through the crowd to fee nearer, others mount upon the (hops, 
and all would pay for places, if ilages could be built up in a moment. 
The fathers and mothers of the little boys who are fighting look on like 
the others, and encourage the one who gives way, or is wanting in 
ftrength. Thefe kind of combats are lets frequent among grown-up men 

3 r than 



49 o Hi/lory of Domeftic Manners 

than among children, but they are not uncommon. If the driver of a 
hackney-coach has a difpute about his fare, with a gentleman whom he 
has carried, and the gentleman offers to fettle the difpute by fighting, the 
coachman agrees to it willingly. The gentleman takes off his fword, 
difpofes of it in fome fhop with his walking-flick, his gloves, and his 
cravat, and fights in the manner I have defcribed. If the coachman is 
well beaten, which is almofl always the cafe, he is confidered as paid ; 
but if he beats, he who is beaten mint pay the fum that was in queflion, 
and that which caufed the quarrel. I once faw the late duke of Grafton 
fighting in the open flreet in the middle of the Strand with a coachman, 
whom he thrafhed in a terrible manner. In France, we treat fuch kind 
of people with blows of a flick or, fometimes, of the flat of the fword ; 
but in England that is never done 3 they never ufe a fword or flick againft 
thofe who are not fimilarly armed ; and if any unlucky foreigner (for it 
would never come into the mind of an Englifhman) fhould ftrike with 
the fword any one who had not got one, it is certain that in an inftant 
a hundred perfons would fall upon him, and perhaps beat him fo that 
he would never recover. Wreflling is alfo one of the diverfions of the 
Englifh, efpecially in the northern provinces. Ringing the bells is one 
of their great pleafures, efpecially in the country ; there is a way of 
doing it, but their peal is quite different from thofe of Holland and the 
Low Countries. In winter football is a ufeful and charming exercife ; it 
is a ball of leather, as large as a man's head, and filled with wind ; it is 
toffed with the feet in the fireets. To expofe a cock in a place, and kill 
it at a diftance of forty or fifty paces with a flick, is alfo a very diverting 
thing ; but this pleafure only belongs to a certain feafon. This alfo is 
the cafe with the dances of the milkwomen, with the throwing at one 
another of tennis-balls by girls, and with divers other little exercifes." 
Such was the rude character of the amufement of all claffes of our 
population during the feventeenth century. 

The ladies ftill had their houfehold pets, though they varied fome- 
times in their character, which perhaps arofe in fome meafure from the 
circumflance that the difcovery of or increafed communication with 
diflant countries, brought the knowledge of animals and birds which were 

not 



and Sentiments. 



491 




No. 313. Birds and Birdcage. 



not lb well known before. Thus,, in the fixteenth century, monkeys 
appear to have been much in fafhion as domeftic favourites, and we not 
unfrequently find them in prints in attendance upon ladies. Since the 
difcovery of the Weft Indies, and the voyages of the Portuguefe to the 
coaft of Africa, parrots had become much more common than formerly. 
In pictures of the period of which we are fpeak- 
ing, we often find thefe, as well as fmaller 
domeftic birds, in cages of various forms. In our 
cut No. 313, taken from Whitney's "Emblems" 
(printed in 1585), we have a parrot in its cage, 
and a finall bird (perhaps meant for a canary), 
the latter of which is drawing up its water to 
drink in a manner which has been practifed in 
modern times, and fuppofed to be a novelty. 
It is very unfafe indeed to affume that any ingenious contrivances of this 
kind are modern, for we often meet with them unexpectedly at a com- 
paratively early date. 

With the multiplicity of new fafhions in drefs now introduced, the 
work of the toilette became much greater and more varied, and many 
cuftoms were introduced from France, from Italy, and from the Eaft. 
Among cuftoms derived from the latter quarter, was the introduction of 
the eaftern hot and fweating baths, which became for a confiderable 
period common in England. They were ulually known by the plain 
Engliih name of hotlioufes, but their eaftern origin was alio fometimes 
indicated by the prefervation of their Perlian name of hum mums. This 
name is ftill retained by the two modern hotels which occupy the lites of 
eftablifhments of this defcription in Covent Garden. Sweating in hot- 
houfes is fpoken of by Ben Jonfon ; and a chara&er in the old play of 
"The Puritan," fpeaking of a laborious undertaking, fays, "Marry, it will 
take me much fweat ; I were better go to fixteen hothoufes." They teem 
to have been moftly frequented by women, and became, as in the Eaft, 

favourite places of rendezvous for goflip and company. They were l 1 

ufed to fuch an extent for illicit intrigues, that the name of a hothoufe or 
bagnio became equivalent to that of a brothel; and t 



nnnanee 

probably 



492 



Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 



probably led eventually to their difufe. A very rare and curious broadfide 
woodcut of the reign of James I., entitled " Tittle-tattle, or the feveral 
branches of goffipping," which in different compartments reprefents 
piftorially the way in which the women of that age idled away their 
time, gives in one part a (ketch of the interior of a hothoufe, which is 
copied in our cut No. 314. In one divifion of the hothoufe the ladies 
are bathing in tubs, while they are indulging themfelves with an abun- 
dance of very fubftantial dainties ; in the other, they appear to be ftill 
more bufily engaged in goliip. The whole broadfide is a Angularly 




No. 314. A Hothoufe. 

interesting illuitration of contemporary manners. A copy of it will be 
found in the print-room of the Britifh Mufeum ; and it may be remarked 
(which I think has not been obferved before), that it is copied from a 
large French etching of about the fame period, a copy of which is in the 
print department of the Imperial Library in Paris. 

This is fufficient to fhow the clofe refemblance at this time between 
manners in France and in England. In the former country, the refort of 
women in company to the hot-baths is not unfrequently alluded to, and 
their behaviour and converfation there are defcribed in terms of fatire 
which cannot always be transferred to our modern pages. In thefe 

popular 



and Sentiments. 493 



popular fatires, the bathers are fometimes chambrieres, and at others good 
bourgeoifes. The pic-nics, which had formerly taken place at the tavern, 
were now transferred to the hot-bath, each of a party of bathers carrying 
forae contribution to the feaft, which they ihared in common. Thus, in 
the popular piece entitled " Le Banquet des Chambrieres fait aux 
Eftuves," printed in 1541, it is the chamber-maidens who go to the 
bath, and they begin immediately to produce their contributions, one 
exclaiming — 

fay du fore f rah, 

Une andouille et quatre f auk ices. 

To which a fecond adds, — 

■ -faye une cottelette, 

Qui le -ventre quaji nfejchaulde. 

And a third, — 

Moy, un palii a fauce chaulde. 

The women are feen eating their pic-nic feaft. in one compartment of our 
cut. This practice foon paffed from the fervant maids of the bourgeoifie 
to their miftreffes, and from the burghers' wives to ladies of higher 
condition. Our word pic-nic, reprefenting the French piquenique, the 
origin or derivation of which word feems not to be clearly known, 
appears to have come into ufe at the latter end of the laft century, when 
people of rank formed evening parties at which they joined in fuch 
pic-nic fuppers, to which each brought his or her contribution. The 
term is now applied almoft folely to fuch collations in the fields, or in the 
open air. 

We have already feen how, at an earlier period, men of a fuperior 
rank in London, and probably in at leaft the larger country towns, Lived 
much in the taverns and cooks' fhops or eating-houles. This practice 
continued, and underwent various modifications, the principal of which 
was the eftablilhment of houfes where a public table was ferved at 
fixed hours, at which a gentleman could take his place on payment of a 
certain fum, much in the fame ftyle as our modern tables d'hote. Gradually 
thefe eftablifliments became gambling-houles, and nun fettled down after 
dinner to cards, dice, and other games. They were called ordinaries, and 

in 



494 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners 

in the reign of Elizabeth they had become an important part of the focial 
fyftem. It was here that people went to hear the news of the day, or 
the talk of the town, and to frequent the ordinary became gradually 
confidered as a neceflary part of the education of a gentleman of fafhion. 
At the beginning of the feventeenth century, the ufual price of an ordi- 
nary appears to have been two ihillings; but there were ordinaries at 
eighteen-pence, and at fome fafhionable ordinaries the price was much 
higher. 

The general treatment of children, their coftume, and their amufe- 
ments, remained much as formerly, and clofely refembled thofe of France 
and Germany as they were then, and as they have exifted in fome parts 
even to our own days. The pernicious practice of fwathing or fwaddling 
the child as foon as it was born prevailed everywhere, and the infant was 
kept in this condition until it became neceflary to teach it the uie of its 




No. 315. Swaddling a Child. 

limbs. The procefs of fwaddling is fhown in our cut No. 313, taken from 
one of the prints by Bofle, publilhed in 1633, which furnilh fuch abundant 
illuftration of contemporary manners. The period during which boys 
were kept in petticoats was very ihort, for at a very early age they were 
drefled in the fame drefs as up-grown people, like little miniature men. 
Our only reprefentatives of the appearance of little boys in the fixteenth 
century, is found in one or two educational eftabhfhments, fuch as the 
Blue-Coat School in London. The coftume of a child during the ihort 

tranfition 



and Sentiments. 495 




tranfition period between his fwathes and his breeches is reprei'ented in 
our cut No. 316, of a boy riding upon his wooden horfe. It is taken 
from a German woodcut of the date of 1549. 

In the fixteenth century little improvement had taken place in the 
means of locomotion, which was ftill per- 
formed generally on horfeback. Coaches, 
by that name, are faid to have been 
introduced into England only towards 
the middle of the fixteenth century. 
They were made in various forms and 
fizes, according to falhion or caprice, and 
towards the end of the century they were 
divided into two claffes, known by the 
foreign names of coaches and caroches. 
The latter appear to have been larsrer 

rr ° No. 316. A Boy a-cock-horje. 

and clumfier than the former, but to have 

been confidered more ftately; and from the old play of "Tu Quoque," 
by Green (a drama of Elizabeth's reign), we learn that it was confidered 
more appropriate to the town (and probably to the court), while the 
coach was left to the country : — 

Nay, for a need, out of hit eafy nature, 
Mafll draw him to the keeping of a coach 
For country, and car roc h for London. 

Ben Jonfon, in his comedy of " The Devil is an Afs," gives us a great 
notion of the buftle attending a caroch : — 

Have with them for the great caroch, fix horfet, 
And the tivo coachmen, ivit/i my ambler bare, 
And my three women. 

Coaches of any kind, however, were evidently not in very common ufe 
until after the beginning of the feventeenth century. Women in general, 
at leafl tbofe who were not fkilful horfewomen, when the diftance or any 
other circumftance precluded their going on foot, rode on a pillion or 
fide-laddie behind a man, one of her relatives or friends, or fometimes a 

fervant 



496 



Hiftory of Domeftic Marnier s 



fervant. The accompanying cut (No. 317) reprefents a couple thus 
mounted, the lady holding in her hand the kind of fan which was ufed 
at the period. From a comparifon of the figure of the Anglo-Saxon 
ladies en horfeback, who were evidently feated in the faddle as in a chair, 
fideways to the horfe, we are led to fuppofe that the Anglo-Saxon lady's 
faddle, and probably the faddle for females in general during the middle 
ages, was the fame as that which was known in the fixteenth and feven- 
teenth centuries, by the name of a pillion. The rider placed her feet 
ufually on a narrow board, which was called in French the planchette. 




317. Riding on a Pillion. 



It is evident that a woman could not be very folidly feated in this 
manner, and not only did flue want the command over the horfe which 
would enable her to take part in any very active exercifes, but it was 
confidered almoft neceffary to place a man on a faddle before her. We 
have, accordingly, feen that, from a very early period, when engaged in 
hunting and in any fort of active riding, the lady ufed a faddle, as at 
prefent, in which the raifed one leg over a part of the faddle-bow, made 
for that purpofe, and placed the other foot in the ftirrup, by which the 
obtained a firm feat, and a command over the horfe. Different writers 
have afcribed, without any reafon, the introduction of this mode cf riding 

for 



and Sentiments. 



497 



for ladies to various individuals, and Brantome Teems to have thought 
that this practice was rirft brought into fafhion by Catherine de Medicis. 
The laft cut is taken from a drawing in the curious Album of Charles de 
Boufy, containing dates from 1608 to 1638, and now preferved among 
the Sloane manufcripts (No. 341,5) in the Britiili Mufeum; and the 
fame manufcript has alfo furnifhed us with the annexed cut (No. 318) of 
a lady of rank carried in her chair, with her chair-bearers and attendants. 
Ladies, and efpecially perfons fuffering from illnefs, were often carried in 
horfe-litters, and there are inftances of chairs mounted fomewhat like the 




No. 318. A Lady carried in her Chair. 

one here reprefented, and carried by horfes. The firft attempt towards 
the modern gig or cabriolet appears to have been a chair fixed in a cart, 
fomething in the ftyle of that reprefented in our cut No. 319, which in 
its ornamentation has a very mediaeval character, although it is given as 
from a manufcript in the Imperial Library in Paris (No. 6808), ol the 
beginning of the fifteenth century. 

The clofe of the period of which we are here [peaking introduces us 
to one in which the manners and cuftoms of our forefathers were lefs 
widely different from thofe of our own daysj and the hiftorj of domeftic 
manners fince that time, chara&erifed Ids by broad outline ol the general 

3 s features 



Uijlory of Dome/lie Manners. 



features in its revolutions than by a gradual fucceflion of minute changes, 
and fathions which muft be traced from day to day, is lefs capable of 
being treated in the comprehensive ftyle of thefe pages. Having now, 
therefore, brought down our iketch of the Hiftory of the Domeftic Manners 




No. 319. A Mediaval Cabriolet. 

of our forefathers to the middle of the feventeenth century, we mail here, 
for the reafon juft Hated, conclude it, and leave to fome worthier labourer, 
or to fome future occafion, the talk of tracing more minutely the hiftory 
of domeftic manners and fentiments during the period which followed 
the middle ages. 



OOOOOOOOCOGOCCXXXpOGOCOO 
Q^QOOCGOCOGC^CCCGOCCQ 



INDEX. 



Adulteration of food, 394. 

Ale, 32. 

Alehouse, road-side, 3C0, 321. 

Ale-stake, 321. 

Almsgiving-, 61, 158. 

Amphitheatres, Koman, continued in use among 
tin; Anglo-Saxons, 64 ; and Anglo-Normans, 
ill. 

Amusements after dinner, 33, 38, 106, 194—225, 
226—236. 

Amusements out of doors, 111—113, 432. 

Animals, domestic, 2.9— 244, 384—386, 490. 

Apple, lhe chief fruit of the Anglo-Saxons, 295. 

Archery, a favourite amusement of the ladies, 
310 ; practised generally, 433. 

Arms suspended in the hall among the Anglo- 
Saxons, 20; at a later period, 452. 

Axes, Anglo-Saxon, 9, 10. 

B. 

Backgammon, the game of, 219, 220, 484. 

Bagpipe, 184, 185, 188. 

Ball, game of, 235. 

Banquet, the 387—395 ; in the sixteenth and 

seventeenth centuries, 466, 467. 
Barons, feudal, their power and cruelty, 102. 
Baths, and bathing, 59, 259, 491,492. 
Bear, dancing, 64, 65, 304 ; baiting, 305. 
Beds, among the Anglo-Saxons, 44— 47 ; among 

the Anglo-Normans, 110, 111; the bed and 

iis furniture among the English, 256—259, 

403—408, 477—4-1. 
B d teads, 262, 404. 

irs, in the middle ages, 327, 328. 
Bi lis, attached to the caparisons of horses, 314. 
Bellows, 144. 
Benches, 139. 

Bi vi >\ the Dame of a meal, 395, '150. 
Beverley, the minstrels of, 192. 
Birds, kept in cages, 239 -242,3 1.385,491. 
Ulinilinan's-buil', game of, 229, 230. 

Boar's head, the, 1 16. 

Bourgeoisie, the, their mode of living, 170— 173. 

Bower, chamber, or sleeping-room, Anglo- 

Saxon, 11. 
Bowls, vessels found in Anglo-Saxon graves, h. 
Box-lion, ornamental, 447. 
Bread, and biking, 92, 161. 
Breakfasts of the Percy family, 421. 
Bn .'■ h 'ii es, plac for lelling I r, 335. 

Until el , Anglo-Saxon, supposed to be for 

carrying liquor, 9, 25. 
Buffet, or cupboard, 362, 379. See Cupboard. 
Bull-baiting, 304. 



Cabinets, 246. 

Cabriolet, 497, 498. 

Caldron, forms of the, 144—1 47. 

Candles, 43, 107, 249—252, 375, 376. 

Candle-beam, 376. 

Candlesticks, 376, 37s, 475 ; attached to the 

walls of halls, 378, 455. 
Caquets de l'accouchee, 481. 
Cards, history of the game of, 221—225, 386, 

484—488. 

. 495. 
Carole, the name of a dance, 228. 
Carpets, 245, 371, 402. 
Carriages, among lhe Anglo-Saxons, 73; among 

the English, 116, 434,4:;5, 495. 
Cart, riding in, disgraceful, 344. 
Cats, 243, 244. 
Cellar, the, 133. 
Chairs, 41, 42, 94, 155, 244, 374, 375, 378, 401, 

473,483. 
Chairs, for conveyance, 497. 
Chambers, Anglo-Saxon, 11, 40—47; early 

English, 132, 244—246, 260—262; in the fif- 
teenth century, 3sl, 399—402. 
Chamber-maidens, 270. 
Chandeliers, 376, 475. 
Chaplets of flowers, popular in the middle ages, 

288. 
Cherries, cultivated by the Anglo-Saxons, 295; 

and generally in England during the middle 

ages, 299, 300, 302. 
Cherry-fairs, 299. 
Chess, game of, 41, 106; history of the game, 

195—214, 286, 2»7. 
Chessmen, ancient, 202—206. 
Chests, 110, 138, 262-26S, ITT. 

Chestnut, meaning of the word, 296. 

Children, treatment of, 47— 01,494. 

Chimneys, 99, 245. 
Churning, 92. 

( ittern, the musical instrument, 186, 187. 
Clergy. Anglo-Saxon, addicted to huntll 
corrupters of domestic morals in the middle 
. 282. 

Cnithad (boyhood), period of among the 

as, 62. 
Coaches, 496. 

Coal, mineral, used among the Anglo- Saxons, 21. 
Coffers, 110, 263—268. 
Cold-harbour, origm ol the term, 76. 
Cooks, ' 
Cookerj , an the Vnglo Saxons, 26, 27j 

English, 91, L48— 180, 347— 366, 396 J in lhe 

fifteenth century, 3M. 
Couch, the, 474. 
Counter, or table for writing, 450. 



Couples, guests placed at table in, 157. 
Court-cupboards, 474. 

Cradle, Anglo-Saxon, 49, 50; English, 402. 
Cressets, implements for giving light, 454, 
Cupboard, 173, 362, 371, 379, 450, 461, 462. 
Curtains, bed, 403-411. 
Curtains of chamber, 244. 
Cymbals, 189. 



Dais, the, 30, 139, 153, 154. 

Dames, the game of, 220. 

Damsons, considered as delicacies, 388. 

Dancing, among the Anglo-Saxons, 35 ; among 
the Anglo-Normans, 111; among the Eng- 
lish, 227—229, 285 ; in the fifteenth century, 
387, 419, 426, 427. 

Day, divisions and different occupations of the, 
92—94, 246, 24 7, 396, 424—426. 

Dice, the game of, 214—217, 4;-5, 486. 

Dinner, among the Anglo-Saxons, 22 — 24 ; 
among the Anglo-Normans, 88—90; forms 
and ceremonies attending the mediaeval dinner, 
150—153, 156—163; dinner in the fifteenth 
century, 3s9, 396 ; alter the Reformation, 
458—466. 

Dinner, number of courses at, 349, 463. 

Dogs, Anglo-Saxon, 68, 69; pets and house- 
dogs, 242, 243; d>gs used in hawking, 307. 

Drauyht chamber, or drawing-room, 408. 

Draughts, the game of, 221. 

Dresser, or cupboard, 173, 379, 393, 450, 4G1, 462. 

Drinking, among the Anglo-Saxons, 3,4,30, 
31 ; among the Anglo-Normans, 113; among 
the English, 168. 

Drim ing ceremonies and formalities, 33, 
467—470. 

Drinking-cups, Anglo-Saxon, 5, 6, 31 ; Anglo- 
Norman, 89, 90; in the fifteenth century, 390; 
drinking-vessels, 465. 

Drum, the, 188, 393. 

Dulcimer, the, 184, 190. 

E. 

Eating, greediness in, characteristic of the 
English, 422, 423; their diet in the seven- 
teenth century, 465. 

Education, 118, 338—340, 439. 

Embroidery, among the Anglo-Saxons, 52 ; 
among the English, 237, 238. 

F. 

Faldestol, the, 95. 

Fashions, extravagant, among the Anglo-Nor- 
mans, 81. 

Feasts, great, 357. 

Female character, estimate of, 105. 

Feudal society, its classes and prejudices, 280, 
416—418. 

Feudalism, 100, 101, 103; its barbarity, 316 ; 
its decline, 4L5, 441. 

Fiddle, the, 34, 184, 185, 193. 

Fighting, love of the English for, 4S9. 

Fire, lighted in the hall among the Anglo- 
Saxons, 20. 21 ; in the chamber, 245. 

Fire-irons, 445—448. 

Fireplace, the, 99, 244, 367, 444, 448—450. 

Floor, strewed with rushes, 154, 246, 366. 

Flowers, love of, among (he Anglo-Saxons, 60 ; 
among the English, 289. 



Flowers, what, cultivated by the Anglo-Saxons, 

295 ; by the English, 297, 298, 300, S01. 
Food, Anglo-Saxon, 26, 28; Anglo-Norman, 

91. See Cookery. 
F.>ol, court or domestic, 390. 
Forfeits, games of, 233. 
Forks f<>r eating, not used in the middle ages, 

29 ; when first used, 457, 458. 
Fostering, practice of, and foster-children, 269, 

271. 
Friends, sworn, 271. 

Friendship, value of, in the middle ages, 271, 272. 
Frog-in-the-middle, game of, 232, 233. 
Fruit cultivated by the Anglo-Saxons, 295 ; in 

Neckam's description, of a garden, 297; in 

that cf John de Garlande, 298. 



Gambling, propensity of the Teutonic race for, 

214. 
Games, among the Anglo-Saxons, 40; among 

the Anglo-Normans, 106, 107 ; in the middle 

ages, 195, 236, 432, 433; at a later period, 

483—490. 
Garden, the, in the middle ages, 2S4— 290, 397, 

429—432, 488. 
Garden-houses, 488. 
Gardening, 60; history of English gardening, 

293-303. 
Gardening, early Engli-h treatises on, 302. 
Garlands, very popular, 288—290, 431. 
Glass vessels, Anglo-Saxon, 89. 
Gleemen, 33, 35, 36, 175, 176. 
Godmundingaham, story of, 55. 
Gossips, their character, 421. 
Grammar schools, origin of, 338. 



H. 

Hall, the Anglo-Saxon, 2, 3, 11, 12, 18, 19, 39: 
the Anglo-Norman, 84,98; the early English, 
141, 153; in the fifieenth century, 362 ; fur- 
niture of the, 364, 365; after the Reforma- 
tion, 443—445, 450 — 455. 

Hanging, as a punishment, 58, 346. 

Harlots, the name of a class in medireval society, 
407. 

Harp, 35, 36, 164, 166, 175, 193. 

Hawking, among the Ansdo-Saxons, 70 ; among 
the English. 305—310, 434. 

Hedgehogs, how cooked, 356. 

Herbergeors, 333. 

Herodias, dancing, 167, 168, 463. 

Hoodman-blind, game of, 229, 230. 

Horn, drinking, 32, 89. 

Horn, the musical instrument, 186, 1S7, 188. 

Horses, and horsemanship, among the Anglo- 
Saxons, 71; among the Anglo-Normans, 114; 
history of the horse in the middle ages, 
316-319. 

Hospitality, and its forms, 22, 23, 76, 328—333. 

Hot cockles, game of, 230—232. 

Hothouses (baths), 491—493. 

Hours, early, kept by our ancestors, 217. 

Hour of rising, 93, 155, 247, 248, 395, 425, 437. 

Of breakfast, 93, 248, 424, 455. 

of dinner, 93, 155, 248, 425, 455, 456. 

ol'supper, 94, 155, 425, 455, 456. 

of going to bed, 94, 155, 246, 425. 



House, the, among the Angl i-Saxons, 2, 11— 17; 
amoi g the Anglo-Normans, 82, 83; the early 
English, 120—136; in the fifteenth century, 
359—362 ; alter the Reformation, 412. 

Hummums, 491. 

Hunting, among the Anglo-Sax ns, 67—70; 
among the Anglo-Normans, 112; a favourite 
amusi inent with the ladies, 310—312. 

Hutch, or Chest, 262—267, 402, 409—411, 450. 



Ivory, in the middle ages, made of the horn of 
the walrus, 202. 



Joined furniture, 374, 375, 472, 473, 483. 
Jougleurs, 165, 177— 181. 



K. 

Kayles, game of, 237. 

Keys, 135. 

Kitchen, Anglo-Norman, 84, 86—88; early 

English, 142—147. 
Knife-cases, ornamental, 464. 
Knight, characteristics of the, 104. 
Knives, Anglo-Saxon, 9, 10, 29, 30; Anglo- 

Norman, 89. 
Knives, not furnished to the guests, 363, 364. 
Knockers to doors, 361. 



Lamps, 44, 252—254. 
Lanterns, 1U8, 252. 
Latten, a mixed metal, 376. 
Learning, state of, 118. 
Lechers. See Ribalds. 

Leek, the favourite vegetable in the middle 
ages, 294. 

Lighting, 43, 249, 375—378, 398, 454. 
Liquors, drunk by the Anglo-Saxons, 32. 
Londesborough, lord, his collection of ancient 

plate, 462. 
Lute, the, 186. 

M. 

Magpie, the favourite taking bird, 239—242. 

Marriage, among the Anglo-Saxons, 54. 

Masques after dinner, 462. 

Mead, 32. 

Meals, Ani;lo-Saxon, 22. 

Meals, hours of the, 155. See Hours. 

Meat, how cooked, 148. 

Medicine, administered by the ladies, 278, 279. 

M ss, meaning of the word, 464. 

Milking, 92. 

Millichope, Norman house at, 129—131. 

Minstrels, 33—37, 108, 161-167, 175—193, 227, 

228, 285, 286, 365,391, 393. 
Mirrors, 260, 112—414. 
Money dealings, 7-, 79, 263, 265. 

M.nks, luxury of the, 348. 
Monkeys, domesticated, 242, 491. 

Moon, a contrivance for giving light, 455. 
Moral character of the Anglo-Saxons, 63 — 58. 

Molality of Ho- mi Idle ages, 273, 281. 

Mummings ai.d masquerades at dinner, 160. 



Music, cultivated as a domestic accomplish- 
ment, 427. 

-iruments, 34, 35, 109, 184—192. 

Music-galleries iu the halls, when introduced, 
182, 444. 

N. 

Naked, sleeping in bed, 257—259, 335, 411. 
Nature, beauties of, love of the Anglo-Saxons 

for, 60; of the English iu the middle ages, 283. 

Nef, the, an ornamental vessel at the dinner- 
table, 163. 

Nigh in-ales, domesticated, and the food for 
them, 385. 

Noah's wife, medi:eval character of, 420, 437. 



Occleve, the poet, his manner of living i 

youth, 4:;;. 
Oranges, 297. 
Ordinaries, 493. 
Organ, the musical instrument, 184. 



Painting, as a domestic accomplishment, 428, 

429. 
Paintings, wall, 371—373, 403. 
Parlour, the, 134,370,371,379— 381,386,475,476. 
Parrot, domesticated in the middle ages, 239, 242, 

491. 
Pavements, under the Anglo-Saxons, 16. 
Peaches, known to the Anglo-Saxons, 296; and 

cultivated in England during the middle ages, 

297, 303. 
Peacock, how served at table, 354. 
Perche, the, 111, 136— 13", 3U5. 
Percy family, their diet, 421. 
Pic-nics, origin of, 438, 493. 
Pie. See Mat/pie. 
Pillion, riding on, 495,496. 
Pine, the kernels of the cone used in the same 

way as almonds (misprinted dices in the first 

reference), 296, 350. 
Pipe, the musical instrument, 188. 
Pipe, double, musical instrument, 64, 190. 
Plants, cultivated in gardens, 297, 2 
Plate, an article of ostentation In the middle 

ages, 171; great fashion for in tb 

century, 161. 
Play, loudness of the Anglo-Saxons for, 63. 
I' lisoning In the middle air -s, -j 7 ; > . 431. 
Pottery, Anglo-Saxon, 6— s ; Anglo-Norman, 

85, 90. 
Priesthood, family, among the unconverted 

Angles, 65. 
Printing, origin of the art of, 22 1. 
Psaltery, the musical instrum nl . 1 96, 1 57. 
Pudding, the love ofthe English lor, 4tio. 

P ii and Judy, 433. 

Punishments, Anglo-Saxon, 58, 69; English, 

312—346. 

Quarrels iu the hall after drinking, 8?. 
Questions and commands, games of, 232—334. 



Ragman's Roll, game of 



502 Index. 


Rere-suppers, 387, 393-395, 467. 


Tabor, the musical instrument, 183, 193, used 


Ribalds, or lechers, a class of mediaeval society, 


to rouse game, 308, 309. 


85, 104, 178. 


Tambourine, the, 188. 


Ridels, 403. 


Tapestry for the walls of houses, 19, 20, 160, 


Riding, 115, 311—315, 495, 496. 


244, 371, 450, 474. 


Riding, prejudice against, 313. 


Taverns, Anglo-Saxon, 75, 77; Anglo-Norman, 


Rings, their importance in the middle ages, 


113; early English, 258, 333—327 ; in the fif- 


266—269. 


teenth century, 436—439. 


Roads, insecurity of the, 77, 326, 436. 


Tavern-keepers, their extortions, 215. 


Robbers, 326, 327. 


Thane's seat, 62. 


Roy-qui-ne-ment, game of, 232, 233. 


Timepieces, 477, 478. 


Ruelle, of the bed, 404. 


Toilette, the, among the Anglo-Saxons, 59 ; 




among the English, 260, 491. 


S. 


Top, game of, 235, 236. 


Torches, use of, 254, 377. 


Salt, its importance at table, and superstition 
concerning it, 362 ; customs relating to it, 459. 
Scholars, begging, 339. 
Schools, 117—119. 
Scissors, 109. 
Seats, among the Anglo-Saxons, 31, 41 ; among 


Towns, 65, 66. 

Travelling, among the Anglo-Saxons, 75 — 78; 

among the Anglo-Normans, 114 — 116; among 

the English, 319—327. 
Trencher, the, 158. 
Truckle-beds, 408. 
Trumpet, 189. 
Tumblers, for drinking, origin of the name, 6. 


the Anglo-Normans, 94—97 ; in the fifteenth 
century, 369, 370; after the Reformation, 


472—474. 


u. 


Servants, cruel treatment of, by the Anglo- 


Saxon ladies, 56, 57. 
Servants how to be governed, 277 ; how treated, 


Umbrellas, used by the Anglo-Saxons, 75. 


278 ; riotous and ungovernable, 313, 424. 


V. 


Service, younggcntlemen going to seek, 269, 272. 


Settle, the, 97, 401. 

Shalm, the musical instrument, 186, 187. 

Side-saddles, used by women, 72, 115,311 — 313. 


Vessels used at table, 25, 34, 150. 

Villains, how regarded by the Normans, 101. 

Vine, the, cultivated in England, 33, 99, 296. 


Sitting, etiquette in, 293. 

Soler, of a house, 12, 83, 126—128 


Visitors, how received, 141, 142. 


Spectacles, 439. 


w. 


Spense, the, 133. 


Spinning, an occupation of the ladies, 238, 426, 

4s2. 
Squirrels, domesticated, 384— 3S6, cooked for 


Waghe, difference between this word and wall, 12. 


Wakes, village, 67. 

Walking, rules for behaviour in, 290—293. 


the table, 355, 356. 
Stocks, as a punishment, 59, 116, 


Washing, before and after meals, 156, 367, 368, 

Weaving, as practised by the ladies, 109, 237, 
426, 427, 482, 483. 


Subtilty, an ornamental device at table, 355, 393. 
Supernaculum, explanation of the term, 468. 


Suppers, 246, 247, 391, 395, 397. 


Well, the, 86, 361. 


Suprer, rere, 387, 393—395, 467. 


Whips, 235, 315. 
Windows, S3, 121, 134. 
Windows, with seats, 373, 374. 


Swaddling of babies, 48, 50, 402, 494. 
Sweetmeats, use of, 467. 




Wine, 33, 90. 


T. 


Woman, her character among the Anglo-Saxons, 




52,53. 


Table, manners at, 161, 162, 363, 364, 366—369. 


Women, their occupations, 52, 53, 108, 109, 237 


Tables, of the Anglo-Saxons, 21, 42 ; of the Nor- 


—239 ; their want of delicacy in the middle 


mans, 94 ; Early English, 139 ; in the fifteenth 


ages, 274 ; treated with rudeness, 275 ; instruc- 


century, 364, 371, 374 ; of the subsequent period 


tions to them, 275 ; acted as doctors, 27*, 279 ; 


471. 


poisoners, 279, 431 ; frequenters of taverns, 


Tables, arrangement of, in the hall, 153. 


2b2, 420, 437—439 ; education and employment 


Tables for books, 340, 341. 


of gentlewomen, 383, 3*4, 419, 426; their 


Table dormant, 139, 365. 


undomestic character, 420 ; addicted to gamb- 


Tables, lolding, 450, 453, 454. 


ling and drinking, 483— 4>5 ; their manner of 


Tables with leaves, 450. 


riding. See Side-saddle, Pillion. 


Tables, for writing, 440, 450. 


Writing, implements of, 96, 117, 266, 340, 341, 


Tables, game of, 40, 217—220. 


439. 


FI > 


J I S. 


JAMES S. VIRTUE, PRIM 


lili, CITY KOAD, LONDON. 



